Field Guide To Optics Education A Tribute To John Greivenkamp (Full Book)

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About the Cover
The front cover for this Field Guide is inspired by SPIE’s Lenses tie,
designed by John Greivenkamp and SPIE staff. The image is an
interpretation of a photograph of a pile of lenses, with details depicting
light properties such as transparency, shadows, reflection, refraction, and
dispersion.
Printed in the United States of America.
First printing 2022.
For updates to this book, visit http://spie.org and type “FG53” in the search
field.

Introduction to the Series
2022 is a landmark year for the SPIE Field Guide series. It

is our 19th year of publishing Field Guides, which now
includes more than 50 volumes, and we expect another four
titles to publish this year. The series was conceived,
created, and shaped by Professor John Greivenkamp from
the University of Arizona. John came up with the idea of a
100-page handy reference guide for scientists and engi-
neers. He wanted these books to be the type of reference
that professionals would keep in their briefcases, on their
lab bench, or even on their bedside table. The format of the
series is unique: spiral-bound in a 500 by 800 format, the book
lies flat on any page while you refer to it.
John was the author of the first volume, the seminal Field
Guide to Geometrical Optics. This book has been an
astounding success, with nearly 8000 copies sold and more
than 72,000 downloads from the SPIE Digital Library. It
continues to be one of the strongest selling titles in the
SPIE catalog, and it is the all-time best-selling technical
book from SPIE Press. The subsequent several Field
Guides were in key optical areas such as atmospheric
optics, adaptive optics, lithography, and spectroscopy. As
time went on, the series explored more specialized areas
such as optomechanics, interferometry, and colorimetry. In
2019, John created a sub-series, the Field Guide to Physics,
with volumes on solid state physics, quantum mechanics,
and optoelectronics and photonics, and a fourth volume on
electromagnetics to be published this year. All told, the
series has generated more than $1.5 million in print sales
and nearly 1 million downloads since eBooks were made
available on the SPIE Digital Library in 2011.
John’s impact on the profession through the Field Guide
series is immense. Rival publishers speak to SPIE Press
with envy over this golden nugget that we have, and this is
all thanks to him. John was taken from us all too early, and
to honor his contribution to the profession through this
series, he is commemorated in the 2022 Field Guides.
Field Guide to Optics Education

Introduction to the Series
We will miss John very much, but his legacy will go on for
decades to come.
Vale John Greivenkamp!
J. Scott Tyo
Series Editor, SPIE Field Guides
Melbourne, Australia, June 2022
John Greivenkamp, 2020 SPIE President and Founding

Editor of the Field Guide Series.

v
Table of Contents
Foreword ix
Preface xi
Prologue 1 xiv
Prologue 2 xvi
Perspectives 1
The Power of Kindness – Jennifer Barton 3
Telling the Story of Optics – Hans Zappe 5
One Small Optics Lab Can Bring Light into the 7
World – Ashley N. Blackwell, Atiyya Davis, and
Thomas A. Searles
Teaching. You Mean Learning! How Online 10
Education May Help Carve an Effective
Pathway – Jannick P. Rolland
University Teaching and Research: 12
Transferring Knowledge to the Next
Generation – María J. Yzuel
Optics Outreach with the International Day of 14
Light – John M. Dudley
Teaching Optical Design – José Sasián 16
Education in Medical Physics as an Entry to an 20
Academic Career in the Optics and AI of Medical
Imaging – Maryellen Giger
Optics Informed by History and Nature – 22
Joseph A. Shaw
Is Optics Easy to Learn and Master? – 25
Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop
You’re on Mute – Alexis Vogt 28
Resources for Effective Approaches – 30
Stephen M. Pompea
Teaching Optics: A Tribute 34
to John Greivenkamp – Zeev Zalevsky
Balancing Perfection and Achievement: Life 36
Lessons & Optics – Cather Simpson
Debug Your Hardware as You Would Your 39
Software – Kathy Creath
Optics Education: Engaging the Next 43
Generation – Adam P. Wax

vi
Table of Contents
Teaching (Optical Design) Students to Learn from 45

Their Mistakes – Julie L. Bentley
Education in an International Community Is a 47
Solution: A Journey Inspired by Researchers on
Different Continents – Samuel Serna Otalvaro
On Hyperlinked Teaching and Learning – 51
Bahaa Saleh
The Importance of Students’ Cross-Cultural 54
Mobility – Małgorzata Kujawińska
The Importance of Hands-On Learning – 57
James C. Wyant
Teaching Methodologies and Paradigms 59

Teaching Laser Engineering to Undergraduates: 61
A Practical Approach – Peter J. Delfyett
Design, Fab, and Test – Glenn Boreman 63
What Do Holiday Lights and Solar Panels Have 65
in Common? – Fatima Toor
Teaching Wave Mechanics with a Modern Digital 67
Toolkit – Andrew Forbes
Tips, Tricks, and Tactics for Terrific Teaching – 70
William Wolfe
The Art of Insight in Optical Science and 71
Engineering – Keith J. Kasunic
There is More to Teaching Optics and Photonics 73
Than Science and Engineering – Anne-Sophie
Poulin-Girard
Re-inventing the Lecture – Rick Trebino 75
From Ray Geometrical to Wave Diffraction 78
Imaging – Virendra N. Mahajan
Teaching Optics Outside the Discipline – 84
MJ Soileau
Tissue Optics: Student Lab in the Kitchen with First 87
Aid Kid and Smartphone – Valery V. Tuchin
The Importance of Learning Both the Great 91
Potential of Optics and the Significant Practical
Challenges of Meeting It – Wolfgang Osten

vii
Table of Contents
Specific Lessons 95
Could Our Eye Be a Single Sphere? – 97
Yobani Mejía
Teaching Optics by Analogy and Association – 99
Mitsuo Takeda
Six Myopic Engineers and the ?? System – 101
Shanti Bhattacharya
Bent Seesaw – Jim Schweigerling 105
Phase Measurement: Simplicity, Beauty, and 108
Uncertainty – Qian Kemao and Yuchi Chen
Writing a Good Scientific Paper – Chris Mack 111
Exciplexes and Excimers and the Importance of 113
Calling Them by Their Proper Names –
Uzodinma Okoroanyanwu
Advances in 3D Human Face Imaging and 116
Automated Facial Expression Analysis –
Megan A. Witherow and Khan M. Iftekharuddin
Notes on Photonic Concepts and Ideas vs. Algebra 118
– Brian Culshaw
A Classical Approach to Teaching Light–Matter 120
Interaction – Eric Van Stryland and
David Hagan
Laboratory Courses as the Foundation / Pillars of 123
Optomechnical Engineering – Jonathan Ellis
Reminiscences 127
Education in Optics—John’s Way – 129
Toyohiko Yatagai
A Shared Passion for Optics Education: John 132
Greivenkamp and Harrison Barrett – Kyle Myers
Chamblant Lenses, Astigmatism, and Cylindrical 135
Lenses – Vasudevan Lakshminarayanan
Remembering John Greivenkamp – 140
Larry C. Andrews
Getting the Word Out – Daniel Vukobratovich 142
Optics at ICTP: Bringing Light to Students 144
from the Developing World – Joseph Niemela
Guided-Wave Photonics – Bishnu P. Pal 147
Reminiscences – Rajpal Sirohi 150

viii
Table of Contents
Appendix: Reviewer Memories 153

Remembering John Greivenkamp – S. Craig Olson 155
Tribute to John Greivenkamp: A Respect for the 156
Fundamentals – Katie Schwertz
The Power of a Brief Exchange – 157
Matthew Jungwirth
List of Contributors 159

Sponsors 162

ix
Foreword
I first met John when he was a 22-year-old first-year

graduate student at the Optical Sciences Center (OSC) at
the University of Arizona. During his time at OSC, he took
three of my classes, and I remember him as a very
personable, dedicated student. When John graduated, he
went to work at the Kodak Research Labs in Rochester,
New York, but we kept in touch. About 10 years after he
graduated, we invited John to apply for a faculty position.
Luckily for us, he accepted and quickly became one of our
most valuable professors.
John was a lifelong learner, who was constantly growing
and evolving. He was an excellent teacher and mentor for
our students and was well-known for the optics demonstra-
tions he used to help students understand the basic
concepts he discussed in class. He was an expert on the
history of optics and, on his own, he created a world-class
antique optics museum at OSC. John also understood the
importance of professional societies and was deeply
involved with both Optica and SPIE. He served as
president of SPIE in 2020 and earlier, together with the
SPIE staff, he created the concept of an optics Field Guide
and served as the first editor of the Field Guide series from
2004 to 2020. Hence, it is very fitting that SPIE is honoring
John with this special Field Guide to Optics Education.
Field Guides are typically written by individual experts in
a specific technical area. However, as stated in the email
that was sent to the contributors for this field guide, “The
goal for this Field Guide is to present a collection of the
perspectives, insights, and even secrets of individuals who
throughout their professional careers have achieved great
respect as teachers and mentors in optics. Contributions
can range from best practices to the best lesson that you
hope gets passed on to future generations to lessons
learned from your own mentor and/or favorite professor.
Or you might simply write about your personal philosophy/
approach to the teaching of optics.” I think when you read
the short articles in this Field Guide you will agree with me

x
Foreword
that the results are fantastic. I have learned something

from each of them.
This Field Guide features contributions from more than 50
leading optics and photonics educators from around the
world. Contributors include John’s teachers, John’s peers,
John’s students, and even students of John’s students, as
well as those he taught through his SPIE activities. I don’t
have space to mention all of the pieces included, but let me
mention just a few to give you a flavor of the book.
One of my favorite pieces emphasizes the importance of a
teacher being kind—you can be firm and tough, but you
must be kind. Several submissions describe basic optical
principles, but the descriptions are different from what we
normally hear or read, showing that there are many
different ways to describe the same topic. There are pieces
giving guidelines for writing scientific publications, as well
as how to teach. Other ones talk about the importance of
understanding hardware and not just theory, which was an
important part of John’s teaching. There are several
articles about other professors who had a large influence
on the author’s life—it is amazing how much a teacher can
influence a student’s life. There are even articles on what
we have learned about teaching during the pandemic.
Lastly, let me mention that some of my favorite articles in
this Field Guide describe a particular author’s experiences
with John. John certainly touched a lot of people and there
are many great remembrances of him. I think you will
enjoy this Field Guide as much as I do.
Happy reading!
James C. Wyant
June 2022

xi
Preface
In January 2022 SPIE and the optics profession at large lost

a giant of our community, Prof. John E. Greivenkamp of the
Wyant College of Optical Sciences at the University of
Arizona. John had a long and distinguished career in optics,
but his most impactful contribution was as an educator. He
directly impacted hundreds, if not thousands, of students as
the instructor for the introductory geometric optics courses
in the undergraduate and graduate programs at the
University of Arizona, and many more through the short
courses he taught through SPIE and other venues. He
indirectly impacted a host of students and professionals
through his Field Guide to Geometrical Optics book. John
also served SPIE in just about every manner imaginable. In
2020 he was President of the Society. He served multiple
terms as a member of the SPIE Board of Directors, and was
committee chair, conference chair, and short course instruc-
tor many times over. He was always available to fulfil any
duty–formal or informal–professional or personal.
While John’s contributions to SPIE were myriad, his most
unique and probably most enduring legacy was the
creation of the Field Guide book series. He served as
founding Series Editor until 2020, and his Field Guide to
Geometrical Optics is the archetype of the genre. It remains
to this day the most popular technical book in SPIE’s
catalog. SPIE has now published more than 50 Field
Guides and has initiated subseries to extend coverage into
other important fields such as fundamental physics. John’s
impact through the Field Guide series will continue for
decades.
Upon learning of John’s untimely passing, SPIE wanted to
find an appropriate way to honor his unique and lasting
legacy. An obvious choice was this Field Guide to Optics
Education: A Tribute to John Greivenkamp because it ties
together John’s passions for education and service to the
optics community.
In planning this Field Guide, we asked a number of
educators and industry leaders, many of whom were John’s

xii
Preface
colleagues and collaborators, to reflect on the importance of

education in their careers and to provide insights into their
approaches to teaching and mentoring students and young
professionals. We gave the contributors very few con-
straints, and the result was an incredibly diverse range of
essays.
These essays are organized into four broad categories that
reflect the varied nature of the contributions: Perspectives;
Teaching Methodologies and Paradigms; Specific Lessons;
and Reminiscences. We hope that you, the reader, find
something in this book that takes you a step further on
your own journey in optics education as a teacher, student,
or both. For those of you who did not know John personally,
we hope that you gain some insight into the value he placed
on education. And for those of you who were lucky enough
to count John among your friends and colleagues, we hope
these stories bring a tear to your eye and remind you of the
passion John brought to his work.
Acknowledgments
SPIE is grateful to each contributor for their inspirational
stories and perspectives on such an important and timeless
topic. The response to contribute on short notice was
amazing.
We also thank the reviewers, Katie Schwertz, Matthew
Jungwirth, and Craig Olson, for their timely and construc-
tive feedback.
Photographs from the Museum of Optics, Wyant College
of Optical Sciences were graciously provided by Ameé
Hennig, Manager of Media Content at the Wyant College of
Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona. We are
grateful to share images from one of John’s other optics
passions in this text.
This book would not have happened without the support of
our many sponsors. The goal was to make this title
accessible to the international optics community both in
print and online, and it is only possible thanks to their

xiii
Preface
generosity. This book will reach many thousands of

students, teachers and mentors, and aspiring scientists
and engineers thanks to: Alluxa, APOMA, Archer OpTx,
Arizona Technology Council—Optics Valley, CREOL,
Edmund Optics, Esco Optics, LaCroix Precision Optics,
Lumedica, Montana State University, Optimax, Opto-
Sigma, Precision Optical, Quartus Engineering, Spectro-
gon, Sydor Optics, Thorlabs, University of Rochester,
Wyant College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona,
and Zygo.
And finally, this book would not have been possible without
the dedication and hard work of the team at SPIE Press.
Special thanks to Dara Burrows, Katie Sinclair, Gina Gabl,
Carrie Binschus, and Ingrid Taylor for helping us pull off
the impossible.
Thank you all!
J. Scott Tyo, SPIE Field Guide Series Editor

Eric Pepper, Guest Editor
Patrick Franzen, SPIE Director of Publications

xiv
Prologue 1
I often remark to my children that I have never actually

had a real job in my life. After 18 years of childhood and
adolescence, I went to college and then graduate school.
For a couple of years in the late 1990s I pretended to enter
the workforce, but one can hardly call being a researcher at
the U.S. Air Force Research Lab “work.” After that brief
stint, I formally entered the academy, where I have taught
at universities in the United States and Australia for the
past 25 years. One of the most amazing things about being
a professional educator is that you are actually a student. I
have learned something new every time I have taught a
course, and those insights and concepts have had a direct
impact on the contributions I have made as a researcher.
Being a student is a lifelong journey that, at least for me,
has never stopped.
In 2006, I moved to the University of Arizona where I met
John Greivenkamp for the first time. John and I had many
opportunities to interact around education since we both
taught a fall semester, compulsory, first-year course in the
Optics PhD program. We discussed students, assessment,
marking, content, and philosophy many times. One point
about John that sticks in my mind is when he told me that,
initially, he did not see himself as an “expert” in
geometrical optics. However, he dedicated himself over
decades to being the best possible teacher of geometrical
optics that he could be. One of the specific features he
brought to his teaching was the use of practical examples.
When John walked to his lectures, he would always be
pulling a luggage cart with a bin full of optics demonstra-
tions that he used to help his students see the concepts
they were being asked to learn.
When I left Arizona in 2015 to move to Australia, I did not
necessarily think of John as one of my closest professional
colleagues. However, when located on the opposite side of
the world, I found myself increasingly reaching out to him
for advice on leadership, service, and education, as well as
for personal advice about some of the medical issues that
he and I shared. John gave me, along with my colleague

xv
Prologue 1
Andrey Alenin, the chance to write two Field Guides, and

these were transformative experiences for a lifetime
student. The amount of learning needed to distill a
complicated topic into 300 words and a picture that fit on
a single page is incredible, and it is incredibly rewarding.
In 2019, John afforded me one of the most amazing
professional honors I have received when he contacted
me on behalf of the selection committee to invite me to take
on the role of Field Guide Series Editor. This was
humbling, flattering, and terrifying, all at the same time.
The Field Guides are John, and I was not sure I could live
up to his expectations. Though this is not the first volume
published in my term as editor, it represents an inflection
point in the series where John’s direct influence ends. We
all get to see where we go from the foundation he built.
The importance of John to me was driven home only two
weeks ago. A difficult issue arose around the publication of
one of the upcoming volumes, and my immediate thought
was to drop John a message to get his insight. I was
saddened when I remembered I could no longer do that. I
then realized that I can still ask John for advice, but that
advice will no longer come in his voice, but will instead
come through the wisdom he imparted on me through our
15 years of friendship. No matter how I decide to deal with
the issues I face in the future, John will have contributed to
those decisions.
J. Scott Tyo
Monash University
Melbourne, Australia

xvi
Prologue 2
John Greivenkamp and the SPIE Field Guides
John Greivenkamp first joined the SPIE Publications

Committee in the late 1990s. He championed practical
publications that helped people understand and solve real-
world problems. John’s acumen led to his appointment as
committee chair in 1999–2000, and again from 2011–2013.
I was SPIE staff Director of Publications during this
period, and John and I established a rapport and
friendship. We enjoyed getting together at SPIE confer-
ences, or in Tucson or Bellingham, where we brainstormed
publishing strategies and new project ideas, most often
over dinner.
As I came to know John better, I saw that he derived his
greatest professional satisfaction from teaching as well as
service to the optics community through his numerous
committee and leadership positions within OSA (now
Optica) and SPIE.
The idea of the Field Guides was first suggested to me by
someone affiliated with SPIE, but it was just a fuzzy
concept, evoked by the field guides people use to help them
identify birds, flowers, and objects in the night sky. How
would it fit optical science and engineering?
John accepted the challenge, eventually forming an idea
that resonated with this field guide construct. John and the
SPIE staff envisioned a series of concise, portable books
encapsulating key concepts, formulas, and tables in a
handy reference format for use in the lab—or, indeed, in
the field. One could easily carry these small books in a
briefcase or backpack to refer to as needed. The Publica-
tions Committee gave the Field Guides a big thumbs up
and appointed John as the Series Editor.
The Field Guides were never intended to be traditional
textbooks or monographs. They would be short—100 or so
pages, with one or two pages per subtopic, including key
definitions, diagrams, and equations. They would be spiral

xvii
Prologue 2
bound and compact, as well as succinct, comprehensive,

and rigorously organized and edited.
SPIE book series editors choose the topics and recruit the
authors. John wanted to write the first Field Guide to
establish a consistent format for all future Field Guides, so
he got to work on the Field Guide to Geometrical Optics.
Once he had completed several topical entries, he began
inviting authors, using the sample pages he had written
and formatted as the example. The invited authors
mirrored John’s enthusiasm, and the series sprang to life.
Since the 2004 launch with the Field Guide to Geometrical
Optics, SPIE has published more than 50 Field Guides.
Countless engineers, scientists, students, and teachers in
diverse technical fields and settings have used and
benefitted from them. New Field Guides will continue to
be added under the guidance of John’s successor, Scott Tyo.
The series remains alive and well.
John was proud of the Field Guides and always grateful for
the amazing work of the authors, reviewers, and SPIE staff
who created them. I know he would be pleased by this Field
Guide to Optics Education and moved that so many
educators and industry leaders he respected have partici-
pated in its creation. John would be especially glad if those
who read it reap something valuable from it.

xviii
Prologue 2
John speaking on “SPIE eBooks: affordable and

accessible educational resources for students, teachers, and
practicing engineers,” a talk we jointly presented to the
Special Libraries Association in 2017.
Eric Pepper, Guest Editor

June 2022

Perspectives

Paper through antique opera glasses
(photo credit: Wyant College of Optical Sciences,
University of Arizona).
A.J. Welch (right) enjoys a break with colleagues and

trainees at the 1995 NATO Advanced Study Institute in
Erice, Sicily. Steven Jacques (left) and Jennifer Barton
(second from left).

Perspectives 3
The Power of Kindness
Jennifer Barton
The University of Arizona, USA
The most important lesson I learned from my mentor was
the power of kindness.
Of course, I learned lots of technical things as well: the
diffusion approximation, Monte Carlo modeling, heat
transport, how to align cranky old lasers, and why it is so
difficult to treat port-wine stains. I also learned the
professional skills that every trainee needs: how to write
a manuscript, present a poster, draft a proposal, and
approach scary big-name researchers at conferences.
All of the technical and professional lessons were critically
important, but the real reason my mentor A.J. Welch has
such a legacy is that he valued people over projects. His
research was highly impactful—some of his publications
have thousands of citations—but his true legacy is his
dozens of trainees in leadership positions in government,
academia, and industry. A.J. was unfailingly patient and
kind, and that attitude was critical for his trainees’
successes. If you couldn’t get an assignment to work, or if
you just broke an irreplaceable hand-built laser (I still
cringe at that memory), he let you know that he believed in
you, and that the situation would work out. His attitude led
to creative thinking, hard work, and camaraderie, so that
situations almost always did work out.
I’ve tried to take A.J.’s lesson in kindness and employ them
in the lab and classroom. It’s hard! Kindness can be
mistaken for passivity or even weakness, but nothing is
farther from the truth. Kindness is empathy with action—
viewing the situation from another’s perspective, discern-
ing what the person needs, and providing it as best as
possible. Kindness takes strength, compassion, and a lot of
energy. Here are three thoughts on kindness:

4 Perspectives
1. Be kind; you don’t know what others are going through.

College is a challenging time under the best of
circumstances, and it got harder during the pandemic.
I teach a large Freshman class, and, although I never
ask for personal details, students have volunteered that
they missed class or assignments because they were at
the bedside of a dying family member, at emergency
counseling, or being evaluated after a sexual assault. To
show kindness, I try to be a good communicator, avoid
assumptions or judgements, and focus on learning
rather than arbitrary benchmarks and schedules.
2. Being kind doesn’t mean being easy. It is not a kindness
to lower standards, or to let a trainee avoid responsibil-
ity. In the long run, this lowers self-esteem if the person
realizes that they are not performing, or else it leads to a
distorted view of reality if they don’t come to that
realization. For me, schedules may be flexible, but
communication, effort, and high quality are not. It is a
kindness to tell a trainee that they are not meeting
expectations and to make known the consequences of
their (in-)actions. This hard conversation hopefully
leads to discovering the root of the problem and
development of a remedy. Very rarely, the kindest thing
to do may be to end the relationship.
3. Be kind to yourself. True kindness to others can only
come when we are kind to ourselves. We all make
mistakes, get affronted at a perceived slight, grow tired
and take the easy path rather than the right one, and,
overall, act as fallible human beings. Being kind,
forgiving yourself, and yet still holding yourself account-
able and striving to do better are critically important.
Learning to be kind is a journey. But the power of kindness
is so strong that, even imperfectly executed, kindness
leaves a legacy that lives in the trainees who are touched
by it. Pay it forward!

Perspectives 5
Telling the Story of Optics
Hans Zappe
University of Freiburg, Germany
As a graduate student at UC Berkeley, many years before
the beauty and diversity of optics seduced me into new
scientific directions, I discovered how truly talented
teachers were able to reveal the wonders of electronics,
hidden amongst obtuse analog circuits or intractable
transistor phenomena, and thereby nurture what would
become a lifelong fascination with the challenges of
engineering.
Yet my role model as a teacher was not an engineer. It was
Paul Feyerabend, who would amble into a packed lecture
hall, swing himself up onto a table in front, and spend the
subsequent hours holding forth on the philosophy and
history of science. How did he so successfully engage the
attention of a hundred or more young students, who
listened, enraptured, without making a peep? He told a
story. Certainly, a long and complex story, with subplots
and ancillary threads, but a story, nonetheless. And I am
certain that every week, everyone learned something from
his story.
What does this have to do with teaching optics? A lot.
Optics is a field that brilliantly lends itself to being taught
as a story, and it is in its telling that we can captivate and
motivate our students. Let’s consider an example, one that
every layperson will likely imagine when we speak about
optics: the simple refractive lens. The story of the lens
spans time and space, and we can ease the student into the
topic by looking back to see how a humble curved piece of
glass has fascinated and challenged centuries of thinkers
and tinkerers. We hear names like Willebrord Snell and
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, perhaps Ernst Abbe or Joseph
von Fraunhofer, and arrive at our modern understanding
of how a lens works. With that, the mathematical toolbox is
opened, and the story continues with rules and methods:
rules for quickly determining how light rays traverse a
lens and methods for calculating these rules in detail.

6 Perspectives
Admittedly, this is the hard part of the story, but the

attentive student will see how we got here.
That student might then think that we are now approach-
ing the denouement, but no. One of the really appealing
things about optics is that, for many of the basic concepts,
she can see these for herself in real life. So, the yarn we are
spinning moves to the lab, and with hardware that any
undergraduate can handle, we show that the methods and
rules that so clearly explained what should happen to a
light beam as it encounters a lens actually describe what
does happen. And at the same time, this experiment
suggests that there is even more to the story than has been
told, since anyone who has picked up a lens to measure it
knows that those methods and rules don’t explain every-
thing that happens. So, the students plunge into another
optics subplot and find that the story is even richer than
they originally thought.
So, as teachers of optics, we can and should tell the
fascinating stories of which our field consists. Because, as
optical storytellers, we don’t just provide tools, we provide
appreciation and context, which will go much further in
inspiring our students to continue weaving the tale
themselves.

Perspectives 7
One Small Optics Lab Can Bring Light into the World
Ashley N. Blackwell, Atiyya Davis, and

Thomas A. Searles
University of Illinois Chicago, USA
Research and education in the field of optics cannot be
decoupled. In fact, the laboratory and classroom are often
purposefully merged to provide hands-on experience to
students through an instructional lab course or research
experience. Research infrastructure and a critical mass of
faculty expertise in optics can be out of reach for many
institutions. However, some non–research-intensive insti-
tutions host teaching and research labs with relatively low
operating costs that have a broad and profound impact on
trainees.
Here, we share best practices for mentoring students in
optics with the intentional inclusion of current graduate
trainees. The aim of our contribution is to present food for
thought from the perspective of mentees whose experiences
in small optics labs changed their world. In addition, we
honor our mentors who have changed the lives of many
with research and education opportunities in optics,
sometimes with little support or infrastructure.
Create space. Effective mentoring is relatable, reliable,
and active. Occasionally, students fail to see the potential
in themselves until someone more experienced gives them
needed encouragement. Advice has more bearing when
the mentor demonstrates compassion and concern towards
mentee wellbeing and success. Creating a safe space for
mentees could be the push needed for many to reach beyond
their comfort zone. A mentor who takes the time to
establish a connection with a student can provide better
guidance, and occasionally the mentee advises the mentor.1
Be human. Be prepared to get your hands dirty, perform
the heavy lifting and make mistakes. Be open to feedback
from your mentees. That feedback can better the overall
experience for future students. Mentors should serve as
inspiration to their mentees while demonstrating that

8 Perspectives
their success is attainable. Further, students need an

advocate who will be a voice for them when called upon.
The lab is for more than just research. Creating a
positive lab culture can lead to student success.2 Within
labs, mentors can build community and create a physical
space in which to learn from each other. Ideally, a lab can
be a counterspace.3 These are safe social spaces that offer
support and enhance a sense of belonging in STEM. They
can be in the form of peer-to-peer relationships, within
mentor–mentee relationships, at national conferences, or
the STEM departments themselves. Further, when exe-
cuted thoughtfully, a lab often serves as a source for
undergraduates to ask advanced students about their
experiences, and for new graduate students to learn from
older students as they prepare for careers. In fact, peer-to-
peer mentoring in research labs is known to be as effective
as traditional PI–student relationships.2
Research is an opportunity for all students, not just
the “best.” Consider choosing students who might have
limited access or opportunity for research experience. Most
research opportunities are restricted to students who are
already academically privileged. Unfortunately, this
excludes many well-deserving and qualified students who
matriculate without any research experiences. Having a
proficient research mentor can change the trajectory of a
student’s academic career. As important, research experi-
ences can help a mentee discover their passion, which is a
leading factor in student persistence for minoritized and
marginalized STEM students.4
In conclusion, we hope that this Field Guide can aid in
supporting all students in their pursuits of optics. We
would like to honor our own mentors: Drs. A. Bak, C. S.
Brown, A. Darwish, P. Delfyett, N. J. Halas, G. L. Harris,
A. H. Walker, R. L. Horne, A. M. Johnson, L. Johnson, J.
Kono, E. N. Lalanne, J. Leotin, K. M. Lewis, W. Lowe,
J. Mendenhall, V. R. Morris, W. S. Rockward, C. Scarlett,
C. E. Simien, D. T. Walton, and W. L. Wilson. We thank

Perspectives 9
Dr. L. T. Quigley for her review of this piece. TAS

acknowledges support from NSF DMR No: 2047905.
References
1. L. V. Morris, “Reverse mentoring: untapped resource in
the academy?” Innovative Higher Ed. 42(4), 285–287
(2017).
2. L. Thomas, “Identity-trajectory as a theoretical
framework in engineering education research,” in 2014
ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings,
Indianapolis, Indiana, Jun. 2014, p. 24.688.1–24.688.11.
doi: 10.18260/1-2–20580.
3. M. Ong, J. M. Smith, and L. T. Ko, “Counterspaces for
women of color in STEM higher education: Marginal
and central spaces for persistence and success,” J. Res.
Sci. Teach. 55(2), 206–245 (2017).
4. M. Estrada, M. Burnett, A. G. Campbell, et al.,
“Improving underrepresented minority student persis-
tence in STEM,” CBE—Life Sci. Ed. 15(3) (2017).

10 Perspectives
Teaching. You Mean Learning! How Online

Education May Help Carve an Effective Pathway
Jannick P. Rolland
University of Rochester, USA
Perhaps, in a world with rapidly growing fields of
engineering and science, students need accelerated learn-
ing. How can we tailor our teaching methods to optimize
students’ knowledge and retention? Starting with the need
to know how well we are doing, the best feedback has often
been from former students reaching out to praise what they
learned in a class and the way this learning impacted their
professional lives. Hearing from students who strongly
resisted being challenged, sometimes years later, espe-
cially brings deep encouragement as a teacher.
After taking two summer courses to learn how to put my
courses online with best practices during the pandemic, I
realized that online classes could be challenging for
instructors (and for some students). Still, online classes
have also been transformative for the majority of students.
I experienced this firsthand as a student myself in these
courses, where I also read many articles on teaching
pedagogy and learning. A clear message was the advice to
shift the focus from the content to the students themselves.
That point is why online education may provide a superior
path to learning:
• First, students must step up from passive on-taking of
lectures to self-learning guided by the professor.
• Second, the lectures (now recorded online) are orga-
nized in smaller mini-lectures that are more digestible
and can be quickly reviewed. Introverts may ask
questions through online mechanisms.
• Third, the students engage in peer-to-peer learning
via discussion boards and collaborative platforms.
There is a saying that “You never really know
something until you teach it to someone else.”

Perspectives 11
• Fourth, the professor can focus on interacting with the

students via online platforms and live discussions
tailored to the identified challenges. Also, guest
experts on specialized topics can readily engage in
the classroom brought online.
• Finally, students can provide reflection memos along
the way for feedback, allowing for adaptation.
I can never go back, as I see the benefit of these advanced
learning methods, at least at the graduate level.

12 Perspectives
University Teaching and Research: Transferring

Knowledge to the Next Generation
María J. Yzuel
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
Professor John Greivenkamp was an excellent model of a
university professor and an inspiration for all, both
professors and students.
We are teachers of optics, one the most wonderful and
interesting branches of physics and in engineering. In my
case, I taught in the Physics degree program, and my
courses ranged from the fundamentals to the applications
of optics. It is very important to students that their
university professors also be researchers who can discuss
with other professors, researchers, and students edge-
cutting fields of research and high technologies in optics, as
well as their applications. One of the most interesting
aspects of our work is the supervision of PhD students,
including the orientation and recommendation we can
provide them as mentors to continue working in the field if
they are so interested.
Optics has a very important role in developing fields such
as environmental sciences, human health, and energy.
Reading the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development
Goals, one can identify many light-based technologies that
will help the optics community reach several of these goals.
This idea can also be an inspiration for our students:
Photonics is a discipline, but it is also an enabling
technology that is crucial for the progress of other
technologies.
An extensive, ongoing discussion at universities and
professional societies is whether we need more students
in science and engineering, as the number has been
decreasing in recent years. My answer is yes, we need
very well-trained and very motivated scientists and
engineers because optics is an enabling technology that
provides solutions to many other fields of science and
technology that are advancing the quality and comfort in
our lives.

Perspectives 13
Moreover, the percentage of female students pursuing

physics and engineering degrees is much smaller than the
percentage for other degrees. This general concern leads to
a need to identify actions that could increase the number of
female students, mainly in fields like optics and photonics,
and could encourage young, talented students to continue
in the field after they finish their degrees or their PhD
studies.
I mention here two international conferences that are
excellent forums for meeting colleagues interested in optics
education and for presenting innovations and activities
in this field. In odd years, the Education and Training
in Optics and Photonics (ETOP) Conference is held in
collaboration with the major professional societies in optics
and the International Commission for Optics. This confer-
ence started in 1991 and has been held in many different
countries around the world. In even years, SPIE organizes
the Optics Education and Outreach Conference as a track
of the SPIE Optics + Photonics Symposium in San Diego,
California, US.
I am finishing my writing for this piece on the Interna-
tional Day of Light (IDL), which is a great opportunity for
outreach activities. The IDL was declared by UNESCO as a
legacy of the International Year of Light and Light-based
Technologies held in 2015 and is celebrated worldwide on
the 16th of May. Many student chapters organize hands-on
activities for students at primary and secondary schools on
this day.
We need to make society aware of the importance of light
and light-based technologies in our lives. By appealing to
the young generation of students, we might convince them
of the beauty in optics and photonics.

14 Perspectives
Optics Outreach with the International Day of Light
John M. Dudley
Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, France
For more than ten years, a partnership of scientific
societies and other organizations has worked with the
United Nations Educational and Scientific Organization
(UNESCO) to raise awareness of the importance of light
science for sustainable development. This partnership led
to the proclamation of the year 2015 as the United Nations
International Year of Light,1 and since 2018, of an
International Day of Light, celebrated annually on May
16, the anniversary of first laser operation.2 SPIE has been
at the heart of these initiatives since their inception.
Successive SPIE presidents, including of course John
Greivenkamp, have shown tremendous support and enthu-
siasm that have been central to the success of these
initiatives.
The International Year of Light in 2015 is recognized as
amongst the most effective of any of UNESCO’s interna-
tional observances, with more than 13,000 activities taking
place in a 12-month period, involving millions of people in
more than 100 countries. The five International Day of
Light celebrations to date have reached an estimated
audience of over a million, with more than 2200 events
taking place in 103 countries, including many developing
nations and regions. It is essential to stress this latter
point. Whilst outreach events are a regular feature of well-
resourced institutes and universities, education initiatives
with a global reach very often only take place under the
umbrella of a UNESCO program.
Education is a continual-learning endeavor, and our
experience with international outreach has been no
exception. Many important lessons have been learned,
and this Field Guide is an ideal place to summarize them.
Probably the most important lesson is that international
actions must be open to all potential partners—both
geographically and thematically. This may appear obvious,
but during the construction phase of these projects, some

Perspectives 15
partners expressed reluctance to embrace sectors such as

art and culture; and there was sometimes surprising lack
of knowledge of the needs of developing countries.
Outreach activities designed in a rich western university
simply may not work elsewhere. It is essential to
communicate with local partners as early as possible.
Including themes of arts and culture is equally important.
Where outreach can make a lasting difference is in opening
to communities that we do not usually interact with. Our
experience has been that including themes such as art,
culture, heritage, and design is an extremely effective
means to attract a broader audience. Another lesson is to
build on the political visibility of a UNESCO or United
Nations observance to organize events that include policy
and/or funding decision-makers. Although many scientists
prefer to avoid interacting at a political level, doing so can
lead to major long-term change.
One of the great benefits of an International Day is its

place as an annual reminder of our responsibilities as
scientists and science communicators to engage as widely
as possible. As Carl Sagan put it 25 years ago: “We’ve
arranged a society based on science and technology in
which nobody understands anything about science and
technology. And this combustible mixture of ignorance
and power sooner or later is going to blow up in our
faces.” His message is more urgent now than ever.3
References
1. J. Rivero, J. M. Dudley, K. Plenkovich, and J. Niemela,
Eds., The International Year of Light and Light-based
Technologies Final Report, SPIE (2015).
2. The International Day of Light website: lightday.org.
3. Carl Sagan. Interviewed by Charlie Rose on 27 May
1996. Sagan died on 20 December 1996.

16 Perspectives
Teaching Optical Design
José Sasián
Optical design is a great field that is essential for
producing optical devices. At the Wyant College of Optical
Sciences, we have developed a strong curriculum in optical
design. We inherited and expanded the curriculum that
Bob Shannon and Roland Shack put together in the early
years of the college.1
Earlier years
Prior to the advent of personal computers, Bob emphasized
the use of computers and asked students to do substantial
homework in lens design.2 Bob also engaged students with
optical design projects from the industry and government
agencies.
Roland Shack’s stereo pair, showing the wavefront

deformation for spherical aberration.
Roland’s teaching was about deep optics thinking; he spoke
of ‘global understanding,’ ‘from the right perspective,’ and
of the ‘elegance’ of an analytic treatment. Roland also
added an element of pleasure in his teaching by using
artistic and appealing graphics and models. He had an
unusual gift for motivating students.
Taking up the torch
John Greivenkamp revised and enhanced Roland Shack’s
course in basic geometrical optics. In particular, John did
live demonstrations of optical principles with actual optical
devices and produced a number of excellent teaching notes.
Notably, his Field Guide to Geometrical Optics published by
SPIE Press3 is very well known: it has been sold by the
1000’s. John’s fascination for teaching and engaging with
students led him to put together what is now the

Perspectives 17
John E. Greivenkamp Museum of Optics at the Wyant

College of Optical Sciences.
I have had the privilege to teach Roland Shack’s course in
optical aberrations, which throughout the years has been
enhanced in several ways, including by covering new
topics. My book Introduction to Aberrations in Optical
Imaging Systems4 captures the heritage in this topic that
Roland and several of his students, including myself,
helped develop. I also have had the privilege to teach the
lens design courses that Bob Shannon originated. Over the
years, these courses have been successful, and many
students really enjoy them. My book Introduction to Lens
Design5 also captures the spirit of these courses.
Enlarging the optical design curriculum
The optical design curriculum has also been enlarged. Tom
Milster has been interested in diffractive optical elements
and offers a course on the theory and design of such
elements. Tom also taught a course on the fabrication of
DOEs. With the subsequent hiring of Russ Chipman, the
teaching of optical design grew to include light polarization
effects and their engineering. Russ has championed 3D
Jones matrices and polarization ray tracing. The book
Polarized Light and Optical Systems,6 authored by Russ
and his former students, is an excellent resource to engage in
this field. We were very fortunate to hire John Koshel, who
brought to the College the teaching of optical design of
illumination systems. He has edited a book, Illumination
Engineering,7 which outlines the fundamentals of this art.
Ronguang Liang has been teaching the course Practical
Optical Design, where students learn how optical design is
applied to the design of actual optical systems. Yuzuru
Takashima teaches the undergraduate course in lens design
as well as a course on applications of optical design.
A comprehensive curriculum
As can be appreciated, the optical design curriculum at the
Wyant College is comprehensive and covers many topics of
current interest. The curriculum represents a strong legacy
in the effective teaching of the field. The courses are

18 Perspectives
attended by both on-campus and distance-learning stu-

dents. In many cases, students further their learning of
optical design by working on projects where they actually
design and built optical devices.
Throughout the years, we have invited as guest speakers
many experts in optical design. These experts give students
excellent lectures and refreshing views about optical design:
John Rogers, Dave Shafer, Mary Turner, Don Dilworth, Dick
Buchroeder, Bill Cassarly, and Rich Pfisterer, to name some
of the speakers—we certainly appreciate and thank them for
sharing their expertise. We also give many thanks to the
optical design software companies that generously provide
academic licenses to use their excellent software packages
for optical design.
A personal touch
Naturally, each of us, as professors, contributes with
different teaching styles. One of my drives in teaching is
to establish, whenever possible, an academic relationship
with each student. In my view, this is helpful in engaging
students to learn. Finding ways to clearly explain optical
principles, demonstrating their use, and following with
appropriate homework are elements of effective teaching.
One example of illustrating concepts is shown below for a
ray caustic forming the cardioid curve.
A ray caustic forming the cardioid curve.

Perspectives 19
One also must motivate and inspire students; for this, one’s
personal technical experience is helpful. Of course, being
passionate about optical design is key and has a substan-
tial impact on effective teaching. One never stops learning
how to teach. There are many rewards for serving as a
professor; it is a joy to pass information and training to
students that will help them tackle the many challenges
they will face in their professional careers.
1. J. E. Harvey and R. B. Hooker, Eds., Robert Shannon
and Roland Shack: Legends in Applied Optics, SPIE
Press (2005).
2. R. Shannon, The Art and Science of Optical Design,
Cambridge University Press (1997).
3. J. Greivenkamp, Field Guide to Geometrical Optics,
SPIE Press (2003) [doi: 10.1117/3.547481].
4. J. Sasian, Introduction to Aberrations in Optical
Imaging Systems, Cambridge University Press (2013).
5. J. Sasian, Introduction to Lens Design, Cambridge
University Press (2019).
6. R. Chipman, W. Lam, and G. Young, Polarized Light
and Optical Systems, CRC Press (2019).
7. R. J. Koshel, Illumination Engineering, Wiley-IEEE
Press (2013).

20 Perspectives
Education in Medical Physics as an Entry to an

Academic Career in the Optics and
AI of Medical Imaging
Maryellen Giger
The University of Chicago, USA
Optics enters the education of the medical physicist
through the teachings of imaging science in the formation
of medical images. Such studies include understanding the
physics of sources, detector systems, image reconstruction
algorithms, noise reduction, image display, and image
interpretation (by human or computer/AI). And many
accomplishments from medical physicists are reported at
the annual SPIE Medical Imaging Symposium held every
February.
My involvement in medical physics education has included
didactic teaching, advising students (mainly PhD graduate
students but also undergraduates, medical students, and
high school students), and serving as the (past) Director
of our CAMPEP-approved Graduate Program in Medical
Physics/Chair of the Committee on Medical Physics at the
University of Chicago. My didactic lectures have covered
radiography, transfer function analysis, and computer
vision/AI/computer-aided diagnosis. In general, PhD stu-
dents are (i) educated in the domain of study, e.g., medical
physics and (ii) mentored to become independent investi-
gators. By “advising,” I actually mean a combination
of advising, mentoring, and sponsoring students and
researchers. Sponsoring involves recognizing and passing
along opportunities to others so they can grow in their
career.
Throughout my career, I have learned that communicating
effectively is the key to progress, and that miscommunica-
tion is often the cause of misunderstandings leading to
problems. This was also strongly stressed and taught by
John Greivenkamp, as I learned during my times on the
SPIE Board with him. John kept the Board and the
documents of SPIE clear and proper. His knowledge of

Perspectives 21
parliamentary procedure and how to run a Board meeting

were impressive, and I appreciated being taught by John.
The highlights of my day are when I am brainstorming
with students, and I greatly look forward to the time when
a student becomes a colleague, which I imagine was one
the highlights of John’s life.

22 Perspectives
Optics Informed by History and Nature
Joseph A. Shaw
Montana State University, USA
In optics, we stay current by following the newest ideas and
accomplishments. However, historical optical systems offer
many valuable lessons, something that drove John Grei-
venkamp to collect and display historical cameras, tele-
scopes, and microscopes. I developed a similar love of
classic optical systems by being exposed to them by my
physicist father, who loaned me a 1950s Leica camera to
use in my high school photography class. I was initially
embarrassed to be the only one in the class with such an
old camera, but I soon learned to focus instead on the
incredible capabilities of that classic camera.
Throughout my career, I have turned to that camera and
other historic cameras, lenses, and telescopes to teach
about optical system design. This kind of teaching is
particularly effective if our students see real historic items
up close and, ideally, hold them to experience their
magnificent craftsmanship. There is nothing quite like
the feel of a classic camera with its mechanical shutter and
metal body! It is also impressive to use classic lenses and
observe first-hand how incredibly sharp some of those old
lenses were (but also to see some of the limitations being
removed with newer technology).
The 1950s Leica camera I used to learn photography—a

beautifully designed classic camera and lens.

Perspectives 23
To me, the only source of optical ideas and stories better

than history is nature. A seemingly simple rainbow, for
example, can be used to teach principles of refraction,
transmission, reflection, dispersion, and polarization. Plot-
ting rays into a spherical water drop from different angles,
one finds most of the rays clustering near the minimum-
deviation angle, which defines the angular size of a rainbow.
The same phenomenon occurs with ray tracing in hexagonal
ice crystals, leading to the 22-degree halo.
The refractions and reflections that give rise to halos and
rainbows also produce partial polarization. For example,
two refractions and a partial reflection at the back of a
water drop produce the readily identifiable color distribu-
tion in the primary rainbow, but they also polarize the
light. The refractions and reflection each favor orthogonal
polarization states, with the net polarization dominated by
the strongly polarized reflection near the Brewster angle.
By considering how the plane of refraction changes
orientation for different parts of the bow, we can deduce
that polarization of rainbow light is oriented tangentially
to the bow.
Rainbow polarization illustrated with primary rainbow

photographs recorded with (left) a linear polarizer oriented
tangentially to the bow and (right) a polarizer oriented
perpendicular to the bow.

24 Perspectives
By teaching optics from history and from nature, we

broaden students’ perspectives and help them better
understand not only the optical principles we are teaching,
but also how to learn from those who came before—and
from the continual array of optical examples that nature
parades before our eyes if we only learn to see them and
learn to question what we see.

Perspectives 25
Is Optics Easy to Learn and Master?
Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop
The University of Queensland, Australia
In rereading the Field Guide to Geometrical Optics by John
Greivenkamp, it struck me how useful the format of the
Field Guide series is and how usable this book is for wide
audiences, including students and professionals in optics.
I wish that I had an opportunity to listen to some of John’s
lectures in optics. So many of his former students
remarked on John’s fantastic abilities as a teacher. He
enthused his students with the subject, evoked their
curiosity in investigating complex optical systems, and
prepared them to find solutions to new problems. From my
own experience in physics, I know that an excellent and
enthusiastic teacher with empathy and understanding for
their students can give birth to a genuine and deep love of
the subject that they teach. We know that many of John’s
students continued on to have successful careers in optics.
My own experience is rather similar—I also had wonderful
teachers in my undergraduate and postgraduate years,
who shaped my interests in physics and directed me in
choosing optics, photonics, and quantum optics as my
research areas. Such teachers also influence us in how we
ourselves approach teaching and research.
Throughout my teaching years, many interesting teaching
methods have been developed that help students build a
better understanding of the subjects we teach. I have been
teaching optics, quantum physics and quantum optics, and
laser physics. In all of my courses, I use an active learning
method to ensure a real learning experience for my
students. I should probably explain what I mean by “real
learning experience.” Normally, when I start any course,
I choose the material on which to base the course, making
sure that it will be accessible to students. Then the real
work starts in trying to convey the material to the students
in a way that they will be able to use it in “real life.”
I started teaching physical optics when I was a PhD
student in Sweden. The method we used there was more or
less based on the UK system of tutorials. Students would

26 Perspectives
come in small groups to ask questions about a certain part of

the course, and the lecturer would answer these questions,
which often involved theoretical derivations, and help to
solve problems based on a particular part of the course. This
type of teaching was very effective in terms of synthesizing
and retaining the knowledge. Most of my pedagogic
endeavours in optics and my choice of the course material
was heavily based on E. Hecht’s Optics, but when I was
preparing for the lectures, I also heavily used F. L. Pedrotti,
L. M. Pedrotti, and L. S. Pedrotti’s Introduction to Optics,
F. A Jenkins and H. E. White’s Fundamentals of Optics, and
M. Born and E. Wolf’s Principles of Optics. My secret was
that I also used a locally produced Swedish optics text by Ulf
Ringström and Lars-Erik Selin, Wave Optics, Acoustics and
Optics, which was used by my first lecturer in optics when
I was an undergraduate student. This little book was a real
pearl as far as theoretical derivations were concerned, but it
also provided numerous instructive examples and exercises,
especially for the topics of interference and diffraction, which
are notoriously difficult. But this book was published only in
Swedish and very many years ago! So, I acted as an
interpreter and made the wonderful findings of this book
available to my students.
I strongly believe that we learn any subject best when we
must present it to others, especially to our students. What
struck me when I was establishing my first experimental
physics lab in Australia was when I noticed that even my
extremely gifted PhD students who passed all their courses
with flying colors could not apply their knowledge gained in
the optics course in practical settings. How to use l/4 or l/2
plate, when to use a polarizing beamsplitter, how to change
polarization, how to use interferometry, and what can we
then expect, and what can we measure, etc. These were
parts of optics that we had to go through again and
practically investigate to learn their properties and their
use. I am convinced that the method of active learning and
peer instruction for active learning represents a good
approach for giving students a larger purpose in learning
the course material as well as for engaging them in

Perspectives 27
self-preparation. Education is more than just the transfer

of information. We, the instructors, develop conceptual
quizzes to guide students’ preparation and use the
conceptual questions during “instruction” time. We then
let the students discuss these questions with their peers
and come up with answers. We monitor the answers and
evaluate whether a particular concept has been grasped.
And it is only when the concept has been understood by
most students that we move forward to the next concept.
Incorporating simple demonstrations and experiments into
our instructions and engaging students in analyzing the
results of these experiments is helpful in building a deep
understanding of the presented concepts. For example, we
can ask, what is interference and diffraction? Or more
generally, how do we infer that light can behave like
waves? How can diffraction and interference be explored
using equipment students can make themselves? How can
we use inexpensive and accessible materials to present the
intricacies of polarization? Can we play with inexpensive
polarizers, bits of sticky tape, and few pieces of glass or
plastic to investigate polarization phenomena in detail?
Our experience during the recent pandemic also taught us
a valuable lesson: we can achieve much more personalized
instruction by using breakout rooms for highly individual-
ized and direct learning. We can determine what it is that
we can do online that we cannot not do in the classroom.
Are there lessons to be learned?
No matter what learning methods we use, the most
essential component is an outstanding, accessible textbook.
And this is where we go back to John Greivenkamp’s
exemplary text Field Guide to Geometrical Optics. John
was really a visionary in establishing this Field Guide
series, and his own contribution to the series is a prime
example of a highly desired text that is of great value for
instructors and for students.

28 Perspectives
You’re on Mute
Alexis Vogt
Monroe Community College, USA
“What’s that? You prefer a Zoom lecture? To teach optics?”
A few years ago, the word “Zoom” was unfamiliar. Today,
Zoom is part of our common vernacular, and we use it as
both a noun and verb. In the world of academia, discussing
the benefits and disadvantages of virtual learning remains
one of the most common debates. While many people share
concern that virtual learning is impersonal, my experience
as an educator has shown inclusive classrooms can be
created even over Zoom. In my Monroe Community College
Introduction to Optics class, which meets over Zoom on
Mondays and Wednesdays, my virtual classroom is made
up of students in Rochester, a precision optics apprentice in
Maryland, an optics company executive in New Jersey, an
optics enthusiast from California, and students from
Washington State and Bahrain. Zoom has provided
unprecedented access to students all over the world.
A virtual classroom provides for more diversity. Within our
class we have artists, musicians, gamers, chefs, mechanics,
and athletes with different genders, races, socio-economic
backgrounds, veteran status, and age. What is important to
every student’s success is a sense of community. In our
Monroe Community College Optical Systems Technology
program, we not only train world-class optics technicians,
but we also establish an inclusive community.
With the curriculum stored on our Monroe Community
College learning management system, I can afford the time
to start each class by greeting every student. Learning
about each student—as a means to both take attendance
and check in—takes times, but our 100% retention rate
demonstrates that the time is well-spent. And end-of-
semester surveys reveal that students greatly value the
time devoted to learning about their classmates. In
addition to learning about Snell’s law, polarization, how
optical fiber works, and other fundamentals of optics, we
celebrate lacrosse and soccer games won, successful car

Perspectives 29
brake changes, movie recommendations, Monday night

pool league wins, 50th birthdays, meals cooked, and
Ramadan observances.
An inclusive community combined with the triad of
knowledge, ownership, and experiential learning is what
enables students, and all people, to excel. And the evidence
shows that an inclusive community can be established over
Zoom.

30 Perspectives
Resources for Effective Approaches
Stephen M. Pompea
NSF’s NOIRLab, USA
John Greivenkamp played an important and outsized role
in creating larger national plans and blueprints that
encouraged and supported optics education at all levels.
Our NSF-sponsored OSA-SPIE project for middle-school-
aged students, Hands-On Optics: Making an Impact with
Light (Pompea et al. 2005) was just one example of a
project that stemmed from John’s commitment to optics
education at the pre-college level. John once commented to
me about the amount of work involved in creating an optics
lesson on color for his daughter’s 4th grade class. I wasn’t
at all surprised, as good units take significant time. For
most of us, time is in short supply. In the spirit of
encouraging efficiency, here are a few tips based on my
experiences in teaching optics in classrooms and in outside-
of-school settings. Perhaps they will save you time and
frustration, making the process more enjoyable.
1. Optics education is equal parts “knowledge and won-
der,” as Francis Bacon so aptly described his philosophy:
“For all knowledge and wonder (which is the seed of
knowledge) is an impression of pleasure in itself,”
(Bacon & Montegu 1852).
Knowledge ascertains how the natural world is orga-
nized and how the individual pieces work, and work
together. When we study how a lens or mirror works, we
are helping build investigative knowledge on refraction
and reflection. Equally important, though, is the sense
of wonder. This can be wonder that there are indeed
laws that govern refraction and reflection, and that
these laws can be determined through careful observa-
tion. There is also the wonder of observing the images
created by lenses or mirrors. Equally impressive, though
harder to explain, is a rainbow or halo created by
complex combinations of simpler effects.

Perspectives 31
Bacon also emphasized the pleasure derived from these

observations. We should remember that enjoyment is a
large part of learning. Appreciating the beauty of optical
phenomena is a powerful motivator for sustained
learning.
2. Optics education is both an art and a science, and needs
to incorporate the lessons learned and best practices
from both from research studies and the experience of
practitioners. The best practices for working with
schools and museums are well documented in many
ETOP proceedings and can save novices much aggrava-
tion and trouble. Some starting points for becoming
more effective when participating in science education
at the pre-college level can be found in a long review by
Pompea & Russo (2020) and in several recent shorter
articles (Pompea & Russo 2021a,b).
3. Working with younger learners has the most impact and
can be the most rewarding. Children who are 9 or
10 years old are excited about learning science and have
great investigative skills. Take advantage of that
interest by providing experiments that are learning
opportunities. Teach them how to do (play) science.
They don’t need to be spectators as they learn the rules
of science.
4. Color is a particularly broad and effective teaching area.
Much of optics can be explored by young children
through their observations and examinations of the
colors that occur in nature. A broad review of the
possibilities to teach with color is given in Pompea &
Carsten-Conner (2015).
5. Optical scientists and engineers are a resource to
classroom teachers and museum professionals. Partner-
ing with educators as resource agents is an effective
strategy. Educators have the knowledge of pedagogy
and how to teach. Optics professionals know the subject
and the practical applications of optics. They also know
how to obtain equipment that might be useful for simple
classroom experiments.

32 Perspectives
6. Help to build interest in science among children and

help them identify with science by developing their
science capital. You can do this by fostering a mindset
more open to exploring and enjoying STEM topics. A
powerful way to achieve this is to incorporate art into
STEM subjects (Conner et al. 2019). This provides an
additional level of science appeal to art-interested
children who may not yet identify with science or who
have already had negative science experiences (Conner
et al. 2017, Sullivan et al. 2017).
References
Bacon, F. and Montagu, B., “Of the Proficience and
Advancement of Learning,” in The Works of Francis Bacon,
Lord Chancellor of England, Cary & Hart, 163 (1852).
Conner, L. D. C., Tsurusaki, B. K., Tzou, C., Sullivan, P. T.,
Guthrie, M., and Pompea, S. M., “Fostering a STEAM
mindset across learning settings,” Connected Science
Learning 1(12) (2019).
Conner, L. D. C., Tzou, C., Tsurusaki, B. K., Guthrie, M.,
Pompea, S. and Teal-Sullivan, P., “Designing STEAM for
broad participation in science,” Creative Education 8(14),
2222 (2017).
Pompea, S. M. and Carsten-Conner, L. D., “Teaching optics
concepts through an approach that emphasizes the ‘colors
of nature,’” Proc. SPIE 9793, 97932U (2015) [doi: 10.1117/
12.2223238].
Pompea, S. M., Johnson, A., Arthurs, E., and Walker, C. E.,
“Hands-On Optics: an educational initiative for exploring
light and color in after-school programs, museums, and
hands-on science centers,” Proc. SPIE 9664, 966425 (2005)
[doi: 10.1117/12.2207727].
Pompea, S. M. and Russo, P., 2020, “Astronomers engaging
with the education ecosystem: A best-evidence synthesis,”
Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics 58, 313–361
(2020).

Perspectives 33
Pompea, S. M. and Russo, P., “Improving science educa-

tion: It’s not rocket science—it’s harder!” Physics Today
74(9), 26 (2021a).
Pompea, S. M. and Russo, P., “Ten simple rules for
scientists getting started in science education,” PLoS
Comput. Biol. 17(12), e1009556 (2021b).
Sullivan, P. T., Conner, L. C., Guthrie, M., Pompea, S.,
Tsurusaki, B. K., and Tzou, C., “Colorful chemistry,”
Science and Children 54(8), 34 (2017).

34 Perspectives
Teaching Optics: A Tribute to John Greivenkamp
Zeev Zalevsky
Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Education and science are no doubt the main driving force
for global equality and prosperity, and for evolving a more
fruitful and successful human society. This is our mission
and legacy as scientists and as educators. Specifically,
optics has an ultimate importance due to its huge potential
contribution to a large variety of fields such as health
(e.g., bio-medical photonic sensing and treatment), vision
correction, ecology (e.g., remote photonic hyperspectral
sensing for detection of pollutions), clean energy (conver-
sion of sun light into electricity and power), and many
more.
The recent Covid pandemic was very helpful in accelerat-
ing the maturing of a large variety of technology platforms
that are capable of assisting scientists and educators to
bring their insights and knowledge to the end-users faster
and farther, no matter where their geographic location
might be. This was done by developing online digital
platforms such as Zoom and Teams, which allow us to
conduct lessons and give lectures without the need of
physically traveling to remote locations that may require
the delivery of the specific knowledge.
However, this technological facilitation by itself is not
sufficient since being a good scientist does not ensure the
capability of being a good educator or a good teacher. I
personally believe that our capability of explaining our
ideas to an audience that is not completely familiar with
the field can significantly strengthen us as scientists—
asking basic questions makes me better understand my
own work.
My PhD supervisor, Prof. David Mendlovic, who is not only
a good scientist, entrepreneur, and engineer, but also an
excellent educator and teacher, taught me that there are no
stupid questions that could be asked by students; there are
only stupid answers that could be given by the teacher.
Students should ask about everything, and a good educator

Perspectives 35
needs to be sufficiently patient and elaborative to be able to

answer any question, no matter how basic or fundamental
it might be.
Nowadays, in many institutions worldwide, the issue of
improving one’s teaching skill is becoming very important
and is now one of the significant factors being considered in
the academic promotion process of a scientist— a factor as
important as one’s scientific achievements and capabilities.
Having said that, I want to stress my admiration of the
educative work and legacy of John Greivenkamp, who
wrote the well-known Field Guide to Geometrical Optics.
John devoted his life to promoting the important concept
that photonics education should be facilitated in the best
possible way to the next young generation of engineers and
scientists—a generation who will continue down this path,
spreading technology and, through it, improving the world
we all live in.
Attracting high school students to study optics by

illustrating the vibrant colors involved with laser light
and the properties of its scattering. (Image captured
at the lab of Prof. Zeev Zalevsky during a visit of a group
of high school students.)

36 Perspectives
Balancing Perfection and Achievement:

Life Lessons & Optics
Cather Simpson
The University of Auckland, New Zealand
One of my favorite things about teaching optics is the
many-faceted life lessons on balancing optimization and
achievement that I can slip in when I work with students
at all stages, from university freshmen to postgraduates.
For those who don’t continue in optics, I hope these “softer”
lessons help guide them to success in whatever they
pursue.
Students in university lab courses often focus on under-
standing and applying optical principles to measure optical
outcomes—to achieve the right focal point, identify the
prism or lens material, steer the beam to the right place, or
get the telescopic magnification right. Proper design and
precise alignment are key. Doglegs illustrate how complex-
ity can be used to simplify, meaning that students can
learn how to iteratively walk a system towards alignment.
They learn that the more you optimize the better your
results. Perfectionists and the mechanically inclined love
it; big-picture thinkers and the less patient find it
frustrating. However, that thread that links the logical
application of focused effort and precise adjustment to
excellent results is hard for any student to miss.
In the undergrad lab, it’s not so much about finding
balance—the “time to stop optimizing the optics” is
determined by the lab period length. For the more
advanced postgraduate or postdoctorates, though, that
decision becomes self-driven.
In the research settings I’m most familiar with, optics is a
much more complex tool used to illuminate the behavior of
physical and chemical systems. Time-resolved femtosecond
absorption or Raman spectroscopy involves interlacing
commercial and home-built instruments, lots of optical
“tinker toys” and multiple types of linear and nonlinear
optical processes.

Perspectives 37
Temperature and humidity can wreak havoc on alignment

from day to day, or even sometimes hour to hour. A PhD
student might take a year or more to build an instrument
and get it working well. However, in the end, it is still just a
tool used to probe, and it is the behavior that is ultimately
the focus of the research.
The data quality from such a system depends exquisitely
on its optical alignment. The temptation is to keep
optimizing, to squeeze out another 1% improvement,
motivated by “I’ll get better data.” At some point, however,
one must stop optimizing and measure. Identifying the
right time for that is hard for many optics students.
It’s a common trap to fall into, and not just for the optical
perfectionist. Entire project management systems have
been developed to help companies decide when to stop
improving a software or hardware product and move it
from research into development and production. Success in
just about anything aligns with being able to confidently
decide “this is good enough.” I explicitly discuss these
challenging times in the laser lab with students as key
moments for them to develop this important life skill.
These are just two examples that show how optics provides
very fertile ground for helping students succeed, to evolve
into successful leaders and contributors to anything they
choose to do. Optics also provides educators like me with a
versatile and invaluable tool for helping my students grow
and learn.
I didn’t know John Greivenkamp as well as I would have
liked, but his dedication to students strongly resonates
with me. His contributions to education in optics and
photonics and to SPIE is legendary, and I am delighted to
be part of this publication in his honor.

38 Perspectives
Dr. Nina Novikova as a PhD student optimizing the

femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy system in the
Photon Factory at the University of Auckland.
Undergraduate, honors, master’s, and PhD students

(left to right) illustrate the evolution of an
optics education.
Perspectives 39
Debug Your Hardware as You Would Your Software
Kathy Creath
Optineering, USA
Back in 1979 when I started doing research for my master’s
thesis as a senior undergrad at the University of Rochester,
I noticed two basic types of theses that students were
working on: hardware and theoretical. Most of my fellow
students were focusing on experiments requiring hard-
ware. These types of projects required being able to design,
build, and test electronics to get your data. Film and
oscilloscopes were standard lab staples. Since I didn’t
really want to solder circuits together, I first chose a topic
that involved a vacuum system that we could never get to
work for lack of funding to buy the necessary parts to fix it.
While working on that, I had my first real “aha” in an
optics lab. I was told to line something up using Brewster’s
angle. When I rotated the polarizer and saw that
Brewster’s angle really did change the polarization state,
I thought WOW, this stuff they’re teaching really works.
Once our group realized that we weren’t going to fix the
vacuum, I switched topics to characterize an infrared
detector. This required me to do the soldering I hadn’t
initially wanted to do to build an electronic amplifier and
filter for biasing the detector so we could get a signal out.
Compared to the other project, it turned out to be very
straightforward to take data. What wasn’t straight-forward
was figuring out why this detector was behaving as it was.
This required adapting a theoretical framework to fit the
observations. When fitting the data, I did some basic
programming on a large tabletop HP calculator/plotter.
That was the beginning of my seeing how software was
going to take over.
When I went to work on my PhD at the University of
Arizona in 1982 I saw I had a choice of electronics vs.
software for processing images. Seeing the complex boxes
of electronics being used in the optics shop for the
interferometers they were using, I thought that software
was the way to go. From the modeling I did for my master’s

40 Perspectives
thesis, I saw the power of computation to crunch data.

As you know, I chose to work on interferometry. I poked at
a lot of different topics before Professor Jim Wyant dropped
a draft of a book chapter on my desk on electronic
speckle-pattern interferometry. Up to this point, ESPI
had required very complex electronics to get fringe
patterns and “analyze” them. He asked if I thought I could
do it in software. I took a look at the book chapter and said
“sure.” The rest (as they say) is history.
Since then, I’ve basically become known as an “algorithms”
person. Yes, I certainly did a lot of that along the way. But
when people from lots of different application areas within
optics come to me as a consultant and ask for help solving a
problem, the answers are usually a lot more basic than
fixing an algorithm.
I have found over the past three decades that many of these
projects have not had good starting points. Often, the
optical system is not producing the best possible image, or
the illumination is not uniform. It could also be that the
camera being used hasn’t been calibrated or maybe
someone simply forgot to turn off the automatic gain. The
algorithms assume that you’re getting a one-to-one
correspondence between the object and image. But so
many little things can disrupt that conjugate relationship.
If you don’t start with a good image, you’re not going to get
a good measurement result. This is a basic tenet of optical
metrology.
So often I find that the questions I get asked are at a very
high level. However, the real question that needs to be
addressed is usually at a low level. Often, it could be
something as basic as setting up a way to align an optical
component the same way on every system. But, what’s
happening instead is that there are too many degrees of
freedom and you end up with every system having a
different problem. Those are tough problems to tease out.

Perspectives 41
Unfortunately, this type of problem solving and finding

solutions is generally not taught in the classroom. I have
found that those who’ve worked on real-world problems
have a leg-up on those who haven’t. A lot of this knowledge
only comes from experience doing it and by learning from
fixing our mistakes. Once you’ve had to fix something more
than once, you probably will not do it the same way again,
and you’ll come up with a way to do it better.
How do we train our younger optical scientists to under-
stand these things and to learn how to learn from what
they do? I advocate more hands-on training—the more of it
the better. Summer jobs are great. Undergraduate senior
team projects and master’s theses research more clearly
reflect how we work in the real world than do lectures and
exams. Lectures and preparing for exams help us know
what material we need to understand and where to find it,
as well as the answers to specific direct questions, but
actually rotating the polarizer to get Brewster’s angle is
what we need to be able to recognize as the fix to debug
systems we are working on.
My takeaway message is to not just look at the final
outcome. Dig in and figure out places where you can check
your results. Intermediate measurements and calculating
results using known inputs can help you understand how
to improve your hardware as well as your software. Debug
your hardware as you would your software.
Ultimately, I think we should be thinking more about the
questions, and how we mentor young scientists and
engineers so they can benefit from what we have learned
to pass on these skills. This, I argue, is more important
than memorizing answers to specific problems that will be
asked on an exam.

42 Perspectives
Deep grating on silicon substrate. (left) White light fringes

taken through Mirau interference microscope. (middle)
Narrowband fringes taken through Mirau interference
microscope [images by K. Creath]. (right) Topographic map
of grating generated from interferograms (images by
J. Schmit).

Perspectives 43
Optics Education: Engaging the Next Generation
Adam P. Wax
Duke University, USA
When I think back to the first time that optics caught my
attention, I recall a visitor to my 3rd grade class. He
described himself as a laser chemist and brought with him
a He-Ne laser. He set up a few basic experiments and lit up
the beam path using chalk from the blackboard eraser. It
was a good demonstration, but it didn’t spark my
imagination until later that school year, May of 1977 to
be precise, when a little-known space movie introduced
laser swords. I think I probably would have been hooked on
Star Wars even without the classroom laser demo, but it
did make me feel a special connection.
John Greivenkamp has had a strong impact on the field of
optics, but his devotion to optics education may be his
greatest contribution, for which he was recognized with the
2017 SPIE Educator Award. Optics education has the
unique opportunity to capture the imagination of future
scientists using dazzling effects that few other science
fields can offer. The hands-on demonstration should be a
staple of the optics educator. Today we have incredible
resources available to show optics principles. Laser
pointers can put a coherent monochromatic beam in the
hands of every student in the class, while modern smart
phones can conduct a range of functions, serving as a
microscope or generating a hologram. My favorite demo
that I would do for my own students’ classes used a
compact disc to generate rainbow diffraction patterns,
although it’s getting harder and harder to find CDs these
days.
As the faculty advisor of DOSC, the Duke Optical Student
Chapter (joint Optica/SPIE), I have had the opportunity to
help our students develop and deliver new outreach
activities for K-12 students. This is an important role for
the chapter for two reasons. First, it helps the young
professionals in our chapter, typically PhD and master’s
students, develop their interest and skills in teaching.

44 Perspectives
The second reason is an even greater motivator, inspiring

the next generation of optical scientists and engineers.
While our outreach has been very successful, consisting of
traveling to local elementary, middle, and high schools
with live optics demos, some of our best events have taken
place when we open up our doors to the community.
Working with the leadership of the Fitzpatrick Institute for
Photonics at Duke (Prof. Tuan Vo Dinh, Director; August
Burns, Manager), we have hosted several events at our
center. This provides a very exciting opportunity for
aspiring scientists to gain hands-on experience with optics,
since many have never had the chance to see a real
research lab. Our open houses for the International Year of
Light and Introduce a Girl to Photonics were very well
attended and may have influenced many young scientists
to follow a career in optics. Although our most recently
planned event, the Photonics Field Day was sidelined due
to the pandemic, we hope that we will be able to open our
doors again soon.
Photo credit: August Burns.

Perspectives 45
Teaching (Optical Design) Students to

Learn from Their Mistakes
Julie L. Bentley
University of Rochester, USA
In optical design, optimization is a process that involves
taking a starting point, defining variables, and making
changes to those variables to find a new solution with
improved performance. While much of this process is now
automated, lens design is still part “art,” as the designer
often intervenes to direct the optimization to move in a
certain direction using an intuition that is built up over
years of trial and error. For example, is not unusual to need
to scrap everything you’ve done for the last three days and
start from scratch. Thus, it is important to allow yourself to
make “mistakes” and “fail” to gain a better understanding
of the design space and find a good path to a solution.
Learning, like optimization, is a highly nonlinear process.
Each student has different preferences and inclinations.
Allowing students to make errors helps them assimilate
the information you are trying to teach according to their
own learning styles. Unfortunately, most people don’t see
making mistakes as a good thing; however, I believe that
teaching students to learn from failure is the key to a
successful class. It is important to give students problems
with both multiple paths to a solution and multiple paths
to failure. As a teacher, you could easily give them the
solution (and the fastest way to the solution), but it is much
more effective to go through the solution path(s) after
they’ve attempted it themselves. This lets students learn
from their mistakes. You can then spend your class time
building up their understanding of the problem afterwards.
Implementing this type of an approach is not easy. Many
teachers are afraid to take this approach, as mistakes take
time, and time is limited in classrooms, but I think the end
result is well worth the time. Below are some quick tips to
help if you choose this path:
• Challenge the student’s concept of success by estab-
lishing up front that making mistakes isn’t just

46 Perspectives
acceptable, but it is the preferred course of action in

your course.
• Lead by example by not being afraid to show your
students your own mistakes and how you learned from
them.
• Ask the “why” questions to force your students to
think deeper.
• Give them “no stakes” quizzes throughout the course
where they know failure is allowed. This gives them a
real-time assessment of what they know without the
test results affecting their outcome in the course. It
also gives you timely feedback to adjust your course
content.
• And last, but not least, don’t give them everything they
need to solve the problem. One of the toughest skills of
teaching lies with the holding back of information and
patiently waiting for students to figure it out or ask for
further help.
Thomas Edison once said, “I haven’t failed; I have just
found 10,000 ways that didn’t work.”
Julie Bentley (right) raytracing on the walls of Goergen Hall

with Danielle Getz.

Perspectives 47
Education in an International Community Is a

Solution: A Journey Inspired by Researchers on
Different Continents
Samuel Serna Otalvaro

Bridgewater State University, USA
I first fell in love with light when I was an undergraduate
student at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in
Medellín. It was my third year in Physics Engineering.
I wanted to combine my passion for scientific research with
giving back to marginalized communities with less access
to education. Then, only 37% of youth in Colombia
attended university, and 50% of these did not finish their
undergraduate degrees. (In the US, 64% of youth attend
university, and 56% of these complete their degrees.) Yet,
Colombia is a country with one of the world’s highest
primary and secondary school completion, and literacy
rates; people there are renowned for research, resilience,
and ingenuity. I knew, from my own experience growing up
in a small town just outside of Medellín, the crucial
importance of outreach to inspire high school students and
their families to apply to university. I also knew how
important mentorship—to complete university and to
imagine a future career—is to young people born and
raised in a country deemed in the 1990s as one of the most
violent in the world. And, as in many places around the
globe, this university outreach is especially important
regarding science. I have come to realize that outreach is
important not only to inspire young people to believe they
can become scientists. It is important to open worlds of
scientific research across institutional and geographical
borders. When I began scientific research as an undergrad-
uate, I already felt lucky to work in a corner of my desk on a
theoretical question because I found it fascinating. My
collaborations with scientists and institutions in five
countries have since revealed to me that our research,
especially when done in diverse global teams, has possibil-
ities for groundbreaking science that can also improve
human life and the natural environment in the 21st century
and beyond.

48 Perspectives
At the beginning of my career, the words “optics” and

“photonics” had no larger meaning to me than a particular
view of Maxwell’s equations (and the common relation to
opticians). I wondered how it is possible to have so many
worldwide organizations on this apparently narrow topic.
The first insight about a possible answer came from my first
optics professor: Dr. Román Castañeda. In his lectures, he
combined history, literature, poetry, and science. In the
very first lecture he said: “At the end of this course, you will
understand how it is possible to obtain darkness by adding
light.” He was referring to one of the most beautiful
experiments in optics, performed by an almost forgotten
scientist (and priest): Francesco Maria Grimaldi. Between
the Italian Plague and the decline of the city of Bologna, he
described (or not?) the first observation of interference. My
professor’s inspiring teaching opened worlds I otherwise
would not have known existed, let alone had access to or
believed I had the ability to enter. The beauty of light
phenomena captivated me. It inspired me to find deeper
explanations and farther frontiers. I was motivated by the
opportunities provided by scientific societies.
Through optics, I had the chance to travel outside my
country for the first time. I attended the SPIE Optics and
Photonics conference in 2010 as the president of the SPIE
student chapter at my university thanks to a student travel
grant. Since that eye-opening conference, I have been
fortunate to work in optics research, publications, and
outreach in four languages and countries: Colombia,
Germany, France, and the United States.
Building my network has been a pillar for the scholarships
that enabled me to continue my research. Under a
European Erasmus Mundus scholarship in Optics in
Science and Technology (OpSciTech), I could see the
differences and common ground among optics researchers
in Germany and France, and the importance of bridging
these differences and commonalities for research in a field
that has global possibilities and implications. My master’s
research in each country enabled me to define a research

Perspectives 49
topic that requires this kind of bridging in what I had since

learned is a huge field with many inter- and intra-
disciplinary possibilities. Integrated optics, particularly
silicon photonics, attracted my attention as a key enabling
technology that has the potential to dominate the circuit
industry in the coming years.
I had opportunities to be trained in experimental optics by
some of the finest French researchers I know, in particular,
Prof. Nicolas Dubreuil, Prof. Eric Cassan, and Dr. Laurent
Vivien. From them, I have learned to appreciate the
importance of failing: failing at experiments, failing at
grant applications, and failing at visa paperwork. There is
something very noble in defeat—to learn how to lose and to
learn from the loss. We obtained world-class results that
overshadow all of the failures that came from them.
Stubbornness, perseverance, and discipline is the message
I learned and want to transfer to my students. Stand firm
when the hard times come.
Since coming to the US, I have had the chance to work in one
of the most prestigious universities, MIT, and to live in the
rich academic environment that the US Northeast offers.
Here, I reinforced my idea that our optics and photonics
community is ready to face the challenges that this new
century is bringing. A challenge that requires a new form of
education connecting with “the Other.” An education that
requires fact checking and involves hands-on experiments.
Finally, and as a proposal, I want to highlight the unique
bachelors’ program in Photonics and Optical Engineering
I have been co-building with great colleagues at Bridgewater
State University (BSU) for three years. It is the first
photonics-related engineering program in a public university
in Massachusetts and one of the few in the country. I invite
every researcher and student to contribute to a new education
model for new technologies, where everyone belongs.
Core to my teaching is also inspiring youth and adults to
believe they can be scientists, including doing research in
photonics. I especially focus on organizing classes where

50 Perspectives
people who have traditionally had the least access to

higher education in general and science/photonics in
particular. This includes people of color, immigrants, low-
income students, first-generation students, women, people
who have lived through war, with diverse abilities, and
who identify as LGBTQ+. Usually, these students are
alight with passion for science and work with me to apply
to university study and/or professional work in science.
Little by little we are building a small and mighty diverse
cohort of scientists studying photonics at BSU with the
invaluable support of the SPIE community.
Joint bootcamp in integrated photonics between BSU

and MIT with grads and undergrads from both
institutions. Photo taken at the BSU Photonics and
Optical Engineering labs.
Technician students from the joint program between

Bridgewater State University and Stonehill College in a
visit to one of the Optical Parametric Oscillators in the
Photonics and Optical Engineering lab.

Perspectives 51
On Hyperlinked Teaching and Learning
Bahaa Saleh
University of Central Florida, USA
During my decades of teaching various courses in engi-
neering, physics, and optics, I have often walked into a
classroom with a board filled with equations and drawings
left from a previous class. Many times, I would see material
identical in content to that which I intended to teach, albeit
expressed with different notations and probably taught in a
different context. The underlying mathematics is appar-
ently the same, but the physical systems are different. At
times, I encountered a few bright students discovering with
amazement that similar principles apply to different
situations; these students saw that the newly found links
enrich their knowledge and abilities to address new
problems. Other students were clueless and confused;
similarities and congruences are not part of their learning
experience.
The course-based, one-instructor-per-course educational
system can be too compartmentalized and may be even
fragmented. Admittedly, alternatives have their own
difficulties. When faculty infrequently share their experi-
ence with different courses and are busy delving into the
depths of the subjects of their own courses, and not
worrying about the general objectives of the program, the
courses become much like the atoms of a cold gas, colliding
infrequently and incoherently. How do we create the
interconnections, bonds, and “hyperlinks” that establish
greater coherence in the educational program? Change is
rarely successful when directed from above or established
by committees. However, it can be initiated by individual
instructors inspired to inject into their courses links or
“hyperlinks” that offer a dose of integration with other
courses and that possibly help provide the students with an
integrated knowledge of the field.

52 Perspectives
I was privileged to lead the group that designed and

implemented the undergraduate program in optics and
photonics at CREOL about 10 years ago. Armed with
knowledge about the contents of various courses and labs of
the program, and having co-authored a comprehensive
optics textbook, I was in a good position to practice what
I preach in the course I teach: Imaging and Display.
Image science and engineering is, by its very nature,
integrated with core topics in the optics program. Optical
imaging is inherently linked to geometric and physical
optics and is based on an understanding of optical
propagation, diffraction, interference, and polarization.
Additionally, since imaging is presented from the perspec-
tive of systems, with inputs, outputs, and transfer func-
tions, it also uses concepts and tools from courses in signals
and systems, and circuit analysis. Some of these courses
are taken by students concurrently, so students might
often hear the same story more than once in the same
semester, but perhaps from a different perspective and
using different notations.
In an imaging course, students learn two-dimensional
Fourier analysis in terms of spatial variables, often while
still learning or digesting one-dimensional Fourier transform
and the notion of spectrum, with time as the underlying
variable. Also, since digital image processing is based on
discrete variables, another challenge is translating the
continuous-variable vocabulary, engraved by multiple math-
ematics courses, like calculus and differential equations,
into a world of MATLAB®-based computing and a view of
processes and systems such as cellular automata. This
requires teaching by analogy.
Analogy, similarity, correspondence, and equivalence are
notions that can be used effectively to communicate, retain,
and recall knowledge. They require the creation of myriad
“hyperlinks” between courses. I have, whenever appropriate,
emphasized the universality of certain concepts or methods
and the multiplicity of their applications. This should help
the student gain a perspective on the significance of the

Perspectives 53
material learned in one course in relation to other courses,

and their scope of applicability within the overall field.
Knowledge confluence—the coming together of several
seemingly independent topics to solve one problem—brings
the student great joy for their learning experience. Courses
such as imaging offer ample opportunity for the students to
pool knowledge from diverse courses to see, describe, or
design complete systems, which is essential for building
student confidence in utilizing their knowledge. While this
is typically accomplished in the capstone senior design
project, I require students in my class to write reports
about complete imaging systems, explaining how knowl-
edge from the course, and other courses, pertains to various
aspects of the system.
While knowledge confluence can indeed come from practice
and hands-on experience in the lab, and Field Guides, I
believe that instructors should inject “hyperlinks” into
their courses with connections to the material in previous,
concurrent, and subsequent courses, with the ultimate goal
of presenting the student with an integrated learning
experience.

54 Perspectives
The Importance of Students’ Cross-Cultural Mobility
Małgorzata Kujawińska
Warsaw University of Technology, Poland
Education in general and higher education, in particular, is
the backbone of any society. Its main goal is to provide
in-depth knowledge and understanding of the world to
advance students to new frontiers of knowledge. Science
and technology higher education focuses on providing
healthy, knowledgeable representation in research, indus-
try, and commerce, but it also should create sighted,
intelligent, and courageous leaders in politics and admin-
istration.
Universities and especially educators/researchers should
help to discover the innate qualities of individual students
and develop these qualities through suitable training by
showing good practices and providing wise mentorship.
However, one might ask whether deep science and
technology support and knowledge transfer in a single
university is sufficient to develop all of the intellectual
skills required in a future professional life—or is sufficient
to create an international awareness with a full under-
standing of freedom, justice, and equality, which are so
needed in today’s world.
My answer to this question is NO.
To properly gain a deep understanding of the surrounding
world and other nations, students should be exposed to
other students and research teams from universities
and countries besides their own. A student’s mobility
experiences assist in the development of
• cross-cultural awareness and better understanding of
other people (to develop empathy),
• adaptability and tolerance,
• open-mindedness, and
• a better understanding of complex global issues.

Perspectives 55
Multicultural experience is also a great asset that helps in

finding a dream job. After completing internships abroad,
candidates are perceived by recruiters as active, deter-
mined, and independent people ready to take on challenges
and show flexibility and willingness towards new situa-
tions under demanding circumstances. Internships abroad
are also the best way to acquire international adaptability
and cross-cultural sensitivity and self-confidence while
learning how to effectively share ideas, doubts, or fears.
The friendships and networks created during studies
abroad, internships, or other collaborative activities among
students (e.g., those through SPIE, OSA, or IEEE student
chapters) often last throughout the professional lives of the
involved individuals.
This was confirmed by my own experience leading at
Warsaw University of Technology (WUT), Poland, for the
European Erasmus Mundus Masters “Optics in Science
and Technology, OpSciTech.” OpSciTech was run by five
prestigious European universities, namely, Institute
d’Optique (France), Imperial College (UK), Delft Technical
University (The Netherland), Fredrich Schiller University
in Jena (Germany), and WUT. More than 100 master’s
level students from 15 countries completed OpSciTech
during the years 2006–2012 (see the photo on the
next page). Many of them now hold important positions
in research institutions, industry, and administration in
Europe and their own countries. Most of them keep in
touch and continue to co-operate with both their former
classmates and with us, their teachers. From my perspec-
tive, OpSciTech was a great learning opportunity for the
recruited foreign students, their Polish, French, German,
Dutch, and English colleagues, as well as the staff and
co-operating Universities.
My advice to all students is to make an effort to use the
multiple opportunities that arise during their studies to
open up to the world through (partial or full) studies
abroad, internships, or other collaborative international
activities with other students. Internationalization of your

56 Perspectives
education will not only bring new scientific and technologi-

cal experiences, but it will also facilitate the promotion of
the ‘international features’ that are desired in the global
economy, such as openness and sensitivity to intercultural
differences, foreign language skills, flexibility of thinking,
and tolerance and respect for others.
Graduation gathering of the first cohort of

OpSciTech Erasmus Mundus Masters.

Perspectives 57
The Importance of Hands-On Learning
James C. Wyant
There are many ways to learn technical material. We read
books, papers, and notes and watch videos. Sometimes the
professor presents demos in class. And we work homework
problems, which, in my opinion is essential for obtaining a
good understanding of the concepts presented.
But, as a student, I needed to do an experiment to really
understand a subject. Doing a lab experiment on a
particular topic always helped me grasp the topic much
better than just reading textbook material. There are
students, however, who do not like taking labs and some
professors who do not like teaching them. It can take the
professor a long time to set up a lab experiment, especially
if they have trouble finding all of the equipment needed, or
if the equipment must be repaired before it can be used.
Labs can also be expensive.
If lab classes are so much trouble, why bother with them?
The answer is very simple—if taught properly, labs can be
fun, and students may understand the material much more
easily doing a hands-on experiment that illustrates the
concepts being taught compared to learning the material in
a lecture setting. By tilting a mirror or moving a lens (or
other optical components) and observing what happens,
students can learn so much. Additionally, students gain an
appreciation for the beauty of optics.
For these reasons, every optics class I taught at The
University of Arizona had an associated lab. For most of
my classes, the lab was not mandatory but highly
recommended, and almost all of the local students took
advantage of the opportunity. When I graded the final
exam, I could usually tell which students had not taken the
lab—in most cases they did not seem to understand the
material as well as the students who had taken the lab.
Lab reports can take a lot of time to write, so I required the
students to write only one lab report at the end of the

58 Perspectives
semester; students were not told which lab would require a

report until a week before the report was due. Conse-
quently, it was essential that they kept an up-to-date lab
book with the results of all experiments performed
throughout the semester. I also required the students to
complete the lab book during the lab time when they were
doing the experiment. I found that, if they waited until
after leaving the lab to make entries in their lab book, they
might not remember the details well enough, and they may
even realize that additional measurements should have
been taken.
I strongly believe that lab courses are essential for
understanding the concepts of optics. If I remember
correctly, John Greivenkamp took three labs from me:
Interference and Diffraction, Holography, and Optical
Testing. I am quite sure that John felt as if he learned a
lot of optics from these lab courses and that he enjoyed the
labs—especially the Holography Lab, where he spent extra
time making additional holograms.
James Wyant (right) demonstrating coherent optics

principles to graduate student Poohsan Tamura, 1976
(photo courtesy of Poohsan Tamura, taken by George Kew).

Teaching Methodologies
and Paradigms

Binoculars (photo credit: Wyant College of Optical Sciences,
University of Arizona).

Teaching Laser Engineering to Undergraduates:

A Practical Approach
Peter J. Delfyett
Teaching a course on lasers can be quite challenging,
especially at the undergraduate level. There are many very
different topics in optics that are integrated to realize
coherent stimulated emission from an optical resonator. In
most teaching scenarios, each of the subtopics, e.g., energy
states in atoms, fundamental concepts in physical optics,
the Fabry–Pérot cavity, Gaussian beams, coupled rate
equations leading to gain saturation for an oscillator and/or
amplifier, and the different regimes of operation (cw,
q-switched, mode-locked), are discussed in a somewhat
independent fashion. For example, the ordering of the
physics of the gain medium and the development of cavity
optics/Gaussian beams can be easily interchanged. In this
modality, I have found that students find it difficult to
integrate the knowledge to understand the interrelation-
ships between these topics to realize a working laser
system. It is in this context that we share our experience
with others.
Motivated by Prof. Greivenkamp’s Field Guide to Geomet-
rical Optics, I have found that I obtain greater teaching
success if the course is taught by introducing a schematic of
a ‘working laser system’ on day 1, and then using this
‘canonical master oscillator-power amplifier laser system’
as a roadmap for where and how each of the independent
topics of a laser course fit in. In addition, we develop a set
of “working equations” based only on the physical para-
meters that an engineer would have in the real world, e.g.,
mirror reflectivity and radii of curvature, energy level
diagram and level lifetimes, spontaneous emission line
shape, etc., that completely describe the laser output in any
of its operational regimes. Thus, as one teaches about the
individual components/concepts that make up a laser, the
student can immediately see how this knowledge fits into
the ‘canonical system’. At the end of the semester, students
have a set of approximately 50 working equations that rely

62 Teaching Methodologies and Paradigms
only on the physical parameters described above, which

enables them to completely predict the output performance
characteristics of the laser, operating in any of the
conventional operating regimes. Most importantly, since
the students gain the expertise of analyzing and predicting
the output of a generic laser system, by exercising the
process in reverse, i.e., selecting a desired output operating
condition, they can construct a design to achieve this goal.
A schematic of the canonical laser system is shown below.
Each of the components (cavity, gain, output coupling
optics, amplifier configuration, operational mode, etc.) can
be easily modified in the teaching process to provide
emphasis on different possible configurations, without
leading to a loss in generality.

Design, Fab, and Test
Glenn Boreman
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA
I first met John when we were in graduate school together
at The University of Arizona. Over the years, we interacted
many times. He was a dedicated educator, with a lasting
legacy of the students he taught.
The observation I offer is that, in my training of PhD
students, I’ve found it useful for their professional
development to incorporate three aspects into their
research project: design, fabrication, and testing. These
were often fondly referred to by my students as the “three
legs of the stool.” For most students, one of these areas will
be their “comfort zone.” Some are naturally computational
folks, some like cleanroom work, and some are most
comfortable with lab measurements. But it is important
that a computational electromagnetics person understand
that the sidewalls of a waveguide are not smooth and are
not always vertical. Once they have fabricated devices and
examined them, they understand that. A fabrication
person needs to understand the assumptions involved in
predicting the device performance, and how their fabrica-
tion process either satisfies or violates them. Also, they
need to appreciate how their device layout affects what can
be conveniently measured. And, to me, the “proof of the
pudding” is in the experimental measurement of device
performance. This is where we close the loop on the design.
There are always discrepancies between the predicted and
measured characteristics, and their comparison is where
the majority of the learning takes place. It is always
satisfying to be able to plot the predictions and the
measurements on the same graph without having to resort
to a logarithmic scale. The design-fab-test loop is typically
executed several times until the predictions match up well
with the results. I have found that this paradigm prepares
students well and gives them a well-rounded perspective.


What Do Holiday Lights and Solar Panels

Have in Common?
Fatima Toor
University of Iowa, USA
Semiconductor light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which

make up both holiday lights and solar photovoltaic panels,
have p–n junctions.
Recently, in my semiconductor devices lecture, a junior/
senior-level, undergraduate electrical engineering course I
teach every spring, I started the lecture by asking students
what holiday lights and solar panels have in common? The
answer was p–n junction diodes. We were starting to study a
chapter on semiconductor junctions, namely, p–n junctions,
which make up both LEDs and solar cells. In a p–n junction
device, a p-doped semiconductor is put in contact with an
n-doped semiconductor. At the metallurgical p–n junction,
diffusion of carriers occurs, and a built-in electric field is
induced. This built-in electric field can then be manipulated
by external stimuli to the p–n junction, such as electric
potential (in LEDs) and sunlight photons (in solar cells). I
think the question at the beginning of the lecture definitely
piqued my students’ interest, and once I shared the answer,
I overheard a few ah-ha’s from the students.
My favorite part of teaching is connecting hard sciences to
items we use in our daily life. My favorite teachers were
also those who could explain to me the science behind the
things around us. While I really enjoyed the technical rigor
of an engineering educational career because it was
intellectually challenging, to me the fact that engineering

Interior of St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague, Czech Republic,

where sunlight shines through stained-glass windows
loaded with plasmonic metal nanoparticles.
was really applied science made it fun—especially the
science of light, which helped me understand why the sky
is blue (Rayleigh scattering of blue light), why we see colors
(reflection), how cosmetics are designed using optical
science (diffused scattering), and how ancient architects
developed color in glass, also known as stained glass, using
metal nanoparticles (plasmonics).
One of my favorite professors of nonlinear optics in
graduate school at Princeton always taught some of the
most complex principles of optics via simple, everyday
examples, which made me enjoy his lectures a lot. For my
PhD qualifying exam, the optics questions, designed by
said professor, were in fact on (i) explaining the science
behind the famous Lycurgus cup (localized surface plasmon
resonance excitation), and (ii) the reason for the reddish
color of the sky at sunset (Rayleigh scattering). I hope that
I can inspire optical science research and exploration in my
students by making connections to everyday life examples
as I teach them about unfamiliar concepts.

Teaching Wave Mechanics with a

Modern Digital Toolkit
Andrew Forbes
University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
At my university in South Africa, which surely is typical of
many universities in the developing world, our optics
undergraduate laboratory exercises are more or less
confined to double-slit interference, some imaging, and a
little Fourier optics. Quantum optics experiments do not
exist in the sense that we think of this topic today, with
quantum experiments inspired by advances a century ago,
mostly ‘particle’ based. Entanglement is very much a topic
of the textbook. Yet in my own research laboratory, we
routinely create and control high-dimensional photonic
entangled states, performing state-of-the-art quantum
optics experiments. Why does it take such a long time for
the advances in research to reach the teaching laborato-
ries? At least in the developing world, one reason is
equipment, and the skills required to implement an
experiment, particularly of a quantum nature. Recently,
we have tried to rectify this problem by, on the one hand,
introducing a modern digital toolkit for modern optical
experiments, and, on the other hand, exploiting the fact
that quantum mechanics is a wave theory, like optics, and
thus ‘wave mechanics,’ classical and quantum, can be
taught with the same principles and the same toolkit.
I would even go so far as to suggest that we teach a wave
mechanics course that is a blend of optics and quantum
mechanics.
In a drive towards inexpensive, fast, and digital, we have
introduced digital micro-mirror devices (DMDs) to our
repertoire of optical tools for teaching and research alike,
offering best practices to get started with DMDs,1 to
accelerate the uptake. What can you do with such digital
tools in the optical laboratory? Well, first you can digitize
the traditional double-slit experiment, bringing an element
of computation, digital control, and automation to the
experiment—not to mention more entertainment and
versatility in execution; e.g., the slits, as images displayed

on the device, can be dynamically changed in all para-

meters such as size, geometry, separation, and so on, giving
the students flexibility to explore and truly “experiment.”
Furthermore, the tools allow one to generalize the
traditional interference experiment to fringes in other
geometries and other degrees of freedom,2 such as radial
and azimuthal fringes, and fringes in the polarization
structure of light, as well as in the orbital angular
momentum of light, highlighting that fringes are not
restricted to intensity. The same tools can be used to
digitally propagate light, digitally spatial filter light, and
thus to demonstrate Fourier optics with a modern flavor.3
The aforementioned experiments are traditionally taught
as part of a course on wave optics, resting largely on the
superposition principle of waves. It is well known that the
equation of motion for quantum states has a form
analogous to that in paraxial optics, and recently the
parallels have deepened, with a realization that many
quantum principles can be demonstrated with classical
light,4 including entanglement.5 Recently, we exploited
this to produce a do-it-yourself teaching kit6 that allows the
user to demonstrate Bell violations, quantum state
tomography, density matrices, and so on, all with 3D-
printed components and conventional laser light, e.g., from
inexpensive laser pointers. This has proven instrumental
in visualizing and working through ‘quantum’ measure-
ments, and ‘quantum’ data, except without any ‘quantum’
complexity in the experiment itself. Here the objective is to
make the theory come alive, to work with real data, but at
the expense of not realizing a true quantum experiment.
Where time and resources are tight, as they often are in
large undergraduate classes, this approach has its place.
In our university, we are in the process of switching
experiments over to this approach and have used our
digital toolkit to great effect in teaching, as well as in
outreach to local schools, inspiring the next generation by
showcasing that optics is modern and alive.

There is a classical particle mechanics and classical wave

mechanics, but only one quantum mechanics. Both optics
and quantum mechanics can be taught in the overlapping
region where the superposition principle holds supreme.
Vector beams, with inhomogeneous polarization states, can
be used to mimic entangled states.
References
1. S. Scholes, R. Kara, J. Pinnell, V. Rodríguez-Fajardo,
and A. Forbes, “Structured light with digital micro-
mirror devices: a guide to best practice,” Opt. Eng. 59(4),
041202 (2019) [doi: 10.1117/1.OE.59.4.041202].
2. D. Gossman, B. Perez-Garcia, R. I. Hernandez-Aranda,
and A. Forbes, “Optical interference with digital
holograms,” Am. J. Phys. 84(7), 508–516 (2016).
3. J. Pinnell, A. Klug, and A. Forbes, “Spatial filtering of
structured light,” Am. J. Phys. 88(12), 1123–1131
(2020).
4. T. Konrad and A. Forbes, “Quantum mechanics with
classical light,” Contemporary Physics 60(1), 1–22
(2019).
5. A. Forbes, A. Aiello, and B. Ndagano, “Classically
entangled light,” Progress in Optics 64, 99–153 (2019).
6. E. Toninelli, B. Ndagano, A. Valles, B. Sephton, I. Nape,
A. Ambrosio, F. Capasso, M. J. Padgett, and A. Forbes,
“Concepts in quantum state tomography and classical
implementation with intense light: a tutorial,” Adv. Opt.
Photon. 11(1), 67–134 (2019).

Tips, Tricks, and Tactics for Terrific Teaching
William Wolfe
It is a pleasure to pass on some tips and techniques that I
have garnered over many years of teaching optics. At the
Wyant College of Optical Sciences, I taught only graduate
students and never had a class larger than 20.
My first suggestion is to never teach a class larger than 20.
That allows you to get to know the students and allows
them to participate without restraint. You may have to
argue with the Dean, but there is always a next semester.
My second suggestion is to work out problems in class.
Assign one and several classes later attack it in class. Make
sure you have considered all of the solutions and
approaches first. This can even be done with the more-
theoretical classes, like diffraction theory or quantum
optics (although I never had to).
My third suggestion is to give oral exams, especially to
graduate students. These exams prepare them for their
real oral exams. They are also a means to learn how much
a student really knows. You cannot filibuster during an
oral. When you give oral exams, you must rely on the honor
system so that you can ask everyone the same questions.
Take notes as you get the oral answers. This has the
advantage for students that, a few hours after the last
question is posed, the results are known. I have done this,
and it works!
My fourth suggestion is to introduce humor. Although
optics is a fascinating subject, a joke or witticism now and
then helps the medicine go down.
Finally, introduce mnemonics of some sort where you can.
I discussed “seven deadly noises” and introduced the
mantra “think of everything” in my radiometry class.
Thank you, John, for all your help with ancient
instruments.

The Art of Insight in Optical Science and

Engineering
Keith J. Kasunic
Optical Systems Group LLC, USA
Perhaps the most common reason undergraduate students
decide to major in science and engineering is that they like
to understand how “things” work. In this section, I give a
brief overview of an instructional methodology—the art of
insight—which brings a more conceptual and intuitive
approach to the educational process to directly address this
interest.
To illustrate, I use the example of the wave equation in
physical optics for the propagation of the electric field
amplitude Ey:
∂2 E y ∂2 E y
5 v2f
∂t 2
∂z2
In the conventional approach, this equation is presented to

students and immediately followed by common methods of
solving for Ey: product solutions, numerical solutions, and
so forth. The student who is motivated by surviving a
difficult class will, of course, learn these methods; the
student also motivated by curiosity, however, would like to
know more: What does the equation itself mean? Yes, it
describes waves, but can we be more specific?
An instructor familiar with teaching the art of insight will,
at that point, introduce an analogy: Instead of Ey, think of a
stretched string with a vibrating amplitude y. What does
the wave equation mean in that case? The answer is
straightforward: The acceleration (∂2y/∂t2) of any point on
the string depends on the phase velocity vf of the wave and
the local curvature (∂2y/∂z2) of the string at that point. That
is, the faster the wave passes, the greater the acceleration;
at the same time, an initial condition of amplitude (not
wavefront) curvature is required for a wave to propagate.

Further questions from the curious student are then

inevitable, such as: What does the phase velocity depend
on? Comparing electromagnetic wave propagation in
vacuum with that in glass, for example, the frequency v
(and “acceleration” ∂2Ey/∂t2 v2) remain the same; in
addition, the wavelength l in glass is shorter, giving more
curvature (1/l2).
The wave equation then tells us that, if the curvature in
glass is higher, the phase velocity must be slower to
maintain the same v—with the refractive index n describ-
ing how much slower via vf = c/n for the speed of light in
vacuum equal to c. The concept of refractive index is thus
essential for understanding not only the static picture of
Snell’s law of refraction, but also the dynamics of wave
propagation.
And like all good analogies, the string-optics analogy can
be carried too far. After all, if an elastic medium such as a
string is required for mechanical waves, what medium (or
“aether”) is required for electromagnetic waves? It actually
took the optics and physics communities quite a bit of time
to answer this question, with the interferometric experi-
ments of Michelson and Morley showing that there is no
aether, and that electromagnetic waves self-propagate.
And so, with the inquiry-based motivation of looking for a
first-order intuitive understanding of the wave equation,
we have discovered a powerful teaching and learning
methodology—i.e., the art of insight, or distilling a problem
down to its physical essence—that quickly led us in
multiple directions, covering a deep conceptual overview
of how some optical “things” work.
For more details on this topic and many others, two
excellent references are: (1) F. S. Crawford, Jr., Waves,
McGraw-Hill (1968) and (2) S. Mahajan, The Art of Insight
in Science and Engineering, MIT Press (2014).

There is More to Teaching Optics and Photonics

Than Science and Engineering
Anne-Sophie Poulin-Girard
Université Laval, Canada
Sometimes, gaining technical skills is not the only, nor the
main, goal of education and training in optics and
photonics. As educators, we can pursue a variety of goals
to help our students become the next generation of
scientists and engineers, and science notions are not
always the main character of our training efforts. Making
sure students would gain technical knowledge was cer-
tainly not the only goal of the Photonics Games commit-
tees, who have welcomed more than 2500 high school
students since the activity was created 14 years ago.
In 2008, with a group of friends from my SPIE student
chapter, we created the Photonics Games. SPIE student
members are great educators, creating countless outreach
activities, reaching out to kids and the general public
around the world. Held once a year over one or two days,
the concept behind the Photonics Games is very simple: in
teams of four, high school students compete in various
optics and photonics challenges.
When we created this activity, we decided on two goals we
wanted to reach. The first one was quite standard: increase
awareness about the science of light amongst young people
and improve their knowledge in the field. The second goal
was more ambitious in my opinion. We chose to leverage
the fact that STEMs are seen as complicated topics in order
to increase the self-confidence of teenage students from
underprivileged areas by creating a positive experience in a
STEM context. We designed six challenges that each call
on different aptitudes: artistic sense, knowledge and
memory, physical coordination, 3D visualisation, social
interactions and teamwork, and mathematical and logical
reasoning. A student who doesn’t have much knowledge of
optics might be very good at 3D visualization and would
perform on the optical mini-golf course. Since each team
was accompanied by a university student volunteer, it was

a great opportunity to put the participants in contact with

potential role models—an opportunity they might not have
had in their normal surroundings. The volunteers also
made sure the spirits were high all day long, no matter
what the outcome of the challenges was.
To maximize the occurrence of STEM-related successful
situations during the activity, we had a medal ceremony at
the end of the day, which is logical as the Photonics Games
are inspired by nothing less than the Olympic Games.
There were never real medals, but we decided to present
the top three teams of each challenge and give fun science-
related gifts to the winners. We also encouraged cheering
and expressions of joy, which can become quite loud in the
presence of 200 high school students and 70 university
volunteers.
I have participated in the organization of several editions
of the Photonics Games, and the initiative is still thriving
to this day. Over the years, high school teachers have told
us countless heartwarming stories about their students in
the Photonics Games retrospective surveys or during
informal conversations. The activity contributed to stu-
dents becoming more serious towards their studies, a
reduction in student absenteeism, an increase in self-
confidence, and young people considering technical career
paths for the first time. And I cannot recall any teacher
who talked about how the Photonics Games significantly
impacted their students’ ability to perform optics and
photonics theoretical calculations. That was simply not the
main goal.

Re-inventing the Lecture
Rick Trebino
Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
The class lecture hasn’t changed in 5000 years, continuing
to comprise a pitifully dull talking head mumbling before a
bleak blackboard. Having completely sat out the ongoing
spectacular technological revolution, the class lecture
remains inherently dull and often exacerbated by inade-
quate teacher knowledge and communication skills. Worse,
lecture preparation is time-consuming, and lecture notes
are not amenable to being shared. So, as with books before
Gutenberg, the task of preparing lectures must currently
be performed independently and hence massively redun-
dantly by every teacher in the world. Lectures absorb tens
of billions of human hours annually.
A snapshot of a slide. In addition to animations, the wave

also actually propagates across the page.
So, it’s time to re-invent the class lecture. If lectures were
actually exciting, students would pay attention, not
because they fear a low grade, but because they’d want
to. Alas, it’s impossible for a talking head to effectively
convey this excitement. Teenagers easily remember minute

details of popular movies seen years earlier but often can’t

recall key ideas from the previous day’s math class.
As a result, I’ve created visually exciting, elegant, high-
tech PowerPoint lectures, packed with colorful gifs,
animations, images, and diagrams. Then, during the
pandemic, I carefully wrote entertaining scripts for,
narrated, and meticulously audio-edited them, yielding
near-professional videos of entire Modern Physics and
Optics courses (see frog.gatech.edu).
While still works in progress (I’m still learning the relevant

skills), they’re vastly superior to live lectures. As down-
loadable movies, they can be watched anytime and many
times, greatly reducing student anxiety. Also, they can be
shared with the world, solving the redundant-effort
problem.
These videos also immediately solved one pesky problem:
the ubiquitous exponential decay of college class atten-
dance over the semester. In my optics course, because they
could do so anytime, nearly all the students reported
watching 100% of the lectures. Also, grades were spectacu-
lar, mostly A’s for the first time in a course of mine.
Now, of course, we can’t expect teachers to have all of the
skills or time to create such lectures. But we don’t need to.
We only need one. Or, better, one team of teachers. Perhaps
the Gates or similar foundation would provide grants of,

say, $200,000 per team per course. Creation of, say,

50 high-school and 200 college courses, each at two
different levels, would cost $100M, a small fraction of the
$2B spent reducing class size in a previous failed attempt
to improve student performance.
This derivation involves multiple animations for the text,

diagram, and equations.
Implementation of this proposed approach will do for
lectures what Gutenberg did for books. Teachers could then
spend their newly available time, say, acquiring more
knowledge and working with students.
As the entire world acquires Internet access, such lectures
could bring quality education to even the poorest schools.
Indeed, this effort could inspire other foundations and
companies to provide Internet access to the one third of the
world that currently lacks it. Finally, in countries hostile to
the education of girls, girls could self-educate by privately
watching such lectures. PowerPoint can translate narrated
lectures into 60 languages.
In conclusion, I believe that this transformation is long
overdue and will reap benefits currently unimagined.

From Ray Geometrical to Wave Diffraction Imaging
Virendra N. Mahajan
It is quite common to start the study of geometrical optics
with Fermat’s principle and derive its laws of rectilinear
propagation, refraction, and reflection from it in 2D. Then,
using the paraxial or the small-angle approximation of the
rays, launch into the imaging equations for refraction and
reflection. Sometimes, instead of deriving the equations for
reflection independently, they are obtained from those of
refraction by giving a value of 1 for the refractive index
and replacing the angle of refraction with a minus value as
the angle of reflection. As soon as these equations are
established, the fact that they have been obtained in the
small-angle approximation is forgotten. Has anyone who
has obtained the image of an object by a graphical
construction wondered if the rays used in the construction
actually make small angles? In fact, the small-angle
approximation is never quantified, except that it is
imposed by replacing the sines and tangents of the angles,
however large, by the angles (in radians). Even the curved
refracting and/or reflecting surfaces are replaced by their
paraxial counterparts in the name of tangent planes. The
image of an object obtained in this manner is called a
Gaussian image. Unfortunately, when done in this man-
ner, Gauss, who introduced the paraxial or Gaussian
approximation, does not get credit for how he came up with
the idea of his approximation.
Rays do not travel only in a plane. Hence, it is important to
consider propagation of skew rays and derive the laws of
geometrical optics in 3D.1,2 When this is done, we realize
that, to trace a ray exactly from one point to another on an
imaging surface, the transverse coordinates of the surface
point depend on the direction cosines of the ray and the
distance between the two. However, the distance itself
depends on the coordinates of the incident point. Hence,
the two equations are coupled and must be solved
simultaneously. The ray is refracted or reflected according
to the law of refraction or reflection. In an imaging system

consisting of multiple refracting and/or reflecting surfaces,

where a ray originates at a point in the object plane,
coupled equations are solved when the ray leaves one
surface and meets another, finally reaching the image
plane. The refracted and reflected rays lie in the plane of
incidence, i.e., the plane containing the incident ray and
the normal to the refracting or reflecting surface at the
point of incidence. In the small-angle approximation,
projections of a skew ray in two orthogonal planes
propagate independently of each other. A ray in the
tangential plane, for example, remains in that plane after
refraction or reflection. Because of the rotational symmetry
of an imaging system, the consequence is that we need to
trace rays only in one of these planes. It is a common
practice to trace rays in the tangential plane of an imaging
system. Because the sine of an angle is replaced by the
angle itself, which is a first-order approximation, ray
tracing in this approximation is called first-order optics,
and the process of determining the image in this manner,
regardless of the magnitude of the angles and sizes, is
called Gaussian optics.
Gaussian imaging is used to determine the image location
and its size in terms of the object location and its size. It
depends only on the vertex radius of curvature of a surface.
Thus, the Gaussian image formed by a conic surface of
some vertex radius of curvature is the same as that formed
by a spherical surface of the same radius of curvature. How
does the difference in the two surfaces manifest itself?
While the two Gaussian images are the same, their actual
images and qualities are not. In Gaussian optics, the image
is aberration free; in reality, that is generally not the case.
The rays from a point object incident on an optical system
do not all pass through its Gaussian image point. Their
distribution is called a spot diagram, and their separations
in the image plane from the Gaussian image point are
called transverse ray aberrations. The spherical wavefront
incident from the point object is not refracted by it as a
spherical wavefront. The deviations of the wavefront along
the exact rays from a spherical surface with its center of

curvature at the Gaussian image point and passing

through the center of the exit pupil of the imaging system
are called wave aberrations. Such deviations are different
for spherical and paraboloidal refracting surfaces. A lens
designer designs an optical imaging system with multiple
surfaces to control the aberrations to required tolerances
over a certain field of view of an object.
For a rotationally symmetric imaging system, the aberra-
tions at a point (r, u) on its pupil for the imaging of a point
object at a height h from its optical axis depend on the
integral powers of three rotational invariants: h2, r2, and
hrcosu.1 The order of such aberrations is even. This is how
the fourth-order, or primary, or Seidel wave aberrations r4,
hr3cosu, h2r2cos2u, h2r2, and h3rcosu come about. These are
spherical aberration, coma, astigmatism, field curvature,
and distortion, respectively. The higher-order aberrations
can be similarly written. Since the ray aberrations represent
the gradients of the wave aberrations, their order is one less
than that of a corresponding wave aberration. Thus, Seidel
ray aberrations, for example, are of the third order. If the
image is observed in a plane that is displaced along the
optical axis from the Gaussian image plane, a defocus wave
aberration varying as r2 is introduced. Moreover, if the
aberration is considered with respect to a point in the
Gaussian image plane other than the Gaussian image point,
a wavefront tilt aberration varying as rcosu is introduced.
These are referred to as classical aberrations. A wave
aberration of a certain order can be combined with those of
lower orders to minimize its variance across the pupil. These
aberrations are called balanced aberrations and are repre-
sented by Zernike polynomials. These polynomials are
orthogonal to each other across a circular pupil. A wave
aberration can also be balanced so that the variance of the
corresponding ray aberrations, or the spot size, is mini-
mized. However, such wave aberrations are not orthogonal
to each other, but their gradients are.
In principle, a system can be designed to yield the image of
a point object to be small to some prescribed tolerance.

Even if the rays transmitted by the system intersect at the

Gaussian image point, the observed image, instead of being
a point, is a light distribution, called the Airy pattern.1,3
Owing to the circular symmetry of the pupil, the pattern
consists of a bright circular spot, called the Airy disc,
surrounded by alternating dark and bright circular diffrac-
tion rings of decreasing brightness. The Airy disc contains
83.8% of the total amount of light. Its radius is 1.22lF,
where l is the wavelength of light, and F is the focal ratio
(distance between the pupil and image planes divided by
diameter of the pupil) of the image-forming light cone. The
Airy pattern also represents the squared modulus of the
Fourier transform of the uniform distribution of light across
the circular pupil because of the diffraction of light. The
brightest point lies at the Gaussian image point. This point
is where the center of the pattern lies and is equidistant
from the points on the spherical wavefront; it is also where
Huygens’ secondary wavelets interfere constructively. When
aberrations are present in a system, the points on the
wavefront exiting from its pupil are not equidistant from the
center of the pattern, and secondary wavelets interfere
partially destructively, thus resulting in a reduction of the
brightness at this point. When the defocus wave aberration,
varying as r2, is an integral number of waves, secondary
wavelets interfere destructively at the center, and the
irradiance reduces to zero.
For small aberrations, the relative brightness at the center,
called the Strehl ratio, is given approximately by
exp(s2F), where s2F is the variance of the phase
aberration.1,3 The fabrication tolerance for a single mirror
for a Strehl ratio of 0.8, for example, is approximately l/30
(where we have doubled the surface error to obtain the
wavefront error because of reflection of light). The irradi-
ance distribution of the image of a point object is called the
point-spread function, and its Fourier transform is called
the optical transfer function (OTF).3 The OTF is a complex
function, and the integral of its real part yields the Strehl
ratio. Its modulus is called the modulation transfer
function (MTF).

In the presence of aberrations, whereas the spot diagram

grows linearly in size, the distribution of light in the
observed image changes without such increase, as shown in
the figure.3 Although the spot diagram does not represent
the true distribution of light in the image, lens designers
use it as a convenient tool in the early stages of a design. As
the spot diagram becomes small in the range of the Airy
disc, they resort to diffraction calculations of the image to
ascertain the image quality. Two commonly used image
quality criteria are the fraction of light on a pixel in the
image plane and the MTF of the system.
While ray geometrical optics determines the location and
size of the image of an object, its quality is determined by
wave diffraction optics, and the aberrations provide a
bridge between the two. It is suggested that, in a course on
geometrical optics, the paraxial approximation be derived
from 3D ray tracing and the Airy pattern be discussed at
least at an elementary level, including how it is impacted
by aberrations.
Aberrated PSF: (a) Airy pattern, (b) defocus, (c) spherical,

(d) balanced spherical, (e) astigmatism, (f) balanced
astigmatism, (g) coma, and (h) random aberration.

References
1. V. N. Mahajan, Fundamentals of Geometrical Optics,
SPIE Press (2014) [doi: 10.1117/3.1002529].
2. M. V. Klein and T. E. Furtak, Optics, John Wiley & Sons
(1988).
3. V. N. Mahajan, Optical Imaging and Aberrations, Part
II: Wave Diffraction Optics, SPIE Press (2001); 2nd ed.
(2011) [doi: 10.1117/3.898443].

Teaching Optics Outside the Discipline
MJ Soileau
Classes for our graduate students and undergraduate
majors give a comprehensive background in optics, photon-
ics, and lasers. We have specialty courses developed by
scholars, and these core lecture courses are complemented
by extensive laboratory experiences. However, what about
a single course for science and engineering majors, or
incumbent workers, who will only take one course in
optics?
The good news is that there are good textbooks available
that that cover the major topics of importance. The sad
news is that there is no way to cover that material in a one-
semester, three-credit-hour lecture course with no accom-
panying laboratory experience. The situation is further
complicated by the reality that some students have strong
physics backgrounds while others have an engineering
background. This, in practice, means minimal derivations
and maximal applications and practice. Since there is no
lab associated with this course, I always bring a bag of
“touchy-feelies” to the lectures: lenses, mirrors, gratings,
polarizers, birefringent crystals, laser pointers, and a bit of
optical fiber. Specific components are shared with students
for their inspection according to the subject of the lecture.
My approach is to do a brief review of simple ray optics, the
laws of reflection and refraction, and Snell’s law at the
level of physics for science and engineering majors. Even
one-time students of optics should have knowledge of how
to ray trace a simple two-element lens system. Thusly
equipped students can also explore total internal reflection
and basic propagation in an optical fiber and the role of
fiber cladding.
After this introduction, I move on to physical optics,
starting with Maxwell’s equations for linear, isotropic
media with no free current or charge. We then do a
derivation of the wave equation. I require that the students
be able to demonstrate that the wave equation is linear

using harmonic functions in sinusoidal and exponential

forms. This math review prepares the students (who have
mixed math skills) for the superposition principle, interfer-
ence, polarization, diffraction, understanding a bit about
optical properties of materials, and basic laser operations.
The vector field nature of light must be included even
though many of the topics above are treated as scalars. One
must also understand how optical fields propagate, how
they transmit energy, and the relationship of irradiance to
the electric field of the electromagnetic wave.
The above paragraph is in effect the syllabus of the course.
For optics and photonics majors, this material is covered by
the many courses and accompanying laboratories. Thus,
the emphasis is to look for synergy in the various topics.
The classic example of this is emphasizing that many
topics and applications of optics require the careful
tracking and/or calculation of phase differences among
beams where the superposition of waves is invoked.
Examples include interferometry and diffraction (which,
after all, is the self-interference of waves.) Polarization is
inherently a vector property but is easily taught in terms of
orthogonal vectors whose components are treated as
scalars along each axis, where the resultant vector is
determined by the relative phase of the two components.
There is inherent conflict regarding what is derived and
what is stated. For example, we derive the results for
diffraction from a slit and from Young’s double slit, with
emphasis on which terms in the relative phases can be
discarded and which must be included. This is easy to then
generalize to rectangular and circular apertures.
Homework is assigned to students so they can discover the
inverse relation between the scale of the aperture size and
the scale of the resulting pattern. Quiz and exam questions
are written that give answers without complex calcula-
tions. Other problems allow the students to discover that
the peak on an axis field depends on the square of the area
of the aperture, independent of the aperture shape. This, in

turn, demonstrates that the peak on axis irradiance

depends on the area squared.
Most students in this class have seen Fourier transforms,
but few are proficient. I simply point out that calculating
the far-field pattern is exactly of the form of a Fourier
transformation, and that a lens performs Fourier trans-
form as it images a source at the lens focus. The result is
that an optical telescope produces an irradiance at the focal
plane that is proportional to the fourth power of the
objective lens radius. A lab to show this would be great!
The next-best option is to give crafted homework problems
that demonstrate this effect. After students solve these
problems, it is easier to convince them that the amount of
light collected is proportional to the area of the objective,
and the area of the diffraction-limited image is propor-
tional to the inverse of the square of the aperture radius,
thus giving the irradiance at focus, which is proportional to
the fourth power of the objective radius.
In summary, a single-course survey of optics needs a small
amount of (but essential) derivations. Tie the lecture topics
to the touchy-feely samples that student can play with, and
give homework problems that are crafted to teach the key
concepts in practical applications.
In my bag of optical samples used in the class is a pair of
late 18th century binoculars given to me by Professor John
Greivenkamp. It is among my favorite optical instruments!

Tissue Optics: Student Lab in the Kitchen with

First Aid Kit and Smartphone
Valery V. Tuchin
Saratov State University, Russian Federation
Introduction
Because tissue optics is one of the main disciplines at the
Department of Optics and Biophotonics of Saratov State
University, we prioritize the acquisition of primary knowl-
edge and practical skills by first-year bachelor students
studying optical and biophysical phenomena in living objects.
The discipline “Introduction to Specialty” is based on the
courses of school physics, biology, chemistry, mathematics,
and computer science, as well as general physics and
mathematics courses given to students during the first and
second semesters. During two semesters, students prepare
written reports and short presentations for public defense of
their projects, which include laboratory work.
Laboratory work
Students receive assignments to perform laboratory work
at home, in their kitchen using animal tissues from the
refrigerator, kitchen utensils for sample preparation,
optical clearing agents (OCAs) from the home first aid
kit, and their smartphone. A typical topic of laboratory
work is the control of the optical properties of tissue when
exposed to an OCA. In agreement with the professor, the
student chooses the type of animal (chicken, pig, bull,
sheep, etc.) and tissue (skin, muscle, heart, liver, kidney,
sclera, dura mater, cartilage, tendon, etc.), and an OCA
(glycerol, glucose, fructose, sucrose, or vape—a mixture of
glycerol and propylene glycol).
Student use improvised means to assemble experimental
setups for recording images of a tissue sample in
transmitted or reflected light. For about an hour, using a
smartphone, student register several dozen images of a
sample placed in an OCA. Next, for the selected points (or
small areas) of the image, using available software,
students plot the dependence of the brightness of the

selected image pixels on the time duration of the sample

soaking in the OCA. Such an analysis can be carried out
separately for the red (R), green (G) and blue (B)
components of white light and thus obtain information
about the properties of the tissue from different depths.
Theory
Attenuation of a light beam of intensity I0 and wavelength
l in a tissue layer of thickness l can be described by the
Beer–Bouguer–Lambert law:1

IðlÞ 5 I 0 exp me l
where
me 5 ma þ ms
is the light-beam attenuation coefficient (1/cm), ma is the
absorption coefficient (1/cm), and ms is the scattering
coefficient (1/cm).
For many tissues, attenuation due to scattering is much
stronger than that due to absorption. Therefore, to increase
tissue optical transmittance T(l), one can decrease the
scattering coefficient
ms ∞ ðm 1Þ2
where m = ns/n0 is the relative index of refraction of

tissue scatterers ns and the ground medium n0. Tissue
fibers and cell organelles are scatterers of light as their
index of refraction ns is higher than that of the ground
medium n0 formed by cytoplasm and interstitial fluid.
When an OCA with refractive index na higher than that of
the ground medium n0 diffuses in a tissue, the refractive
index of the ground medium increases with time. This
diffusion means that n0 ! ns, m ! 1, and ms ! 0; thus,
optical transmittance T(l) ! 1.
Example of student work
Fragments of the report of one of the laboratory works are
presented in the figure on the next page. At the bottom left,
two digital images of a tissue sample are seen, obtained in

the transmission mode—before (top) and after (bottom) the

action of the OCA. Three regions of interest (ROIs) are
identified in the characteristic regions of the sample, above
item 5 (ROI 1) and the black line (ROI 2) drawn on the
sample substrate, and in the area free of light-absorbing
elements (ROI 3). It can be clearly seen that the sample
becomes more transparent upon optical clearing due to a
decrease in light scattering. Therefore, as seen in the
bottom right panel, the brightness of the image in the
absorber-free region of ROI 3 increases over time from 650
to 700 units. In the areas of ROI 1 and ROI 2 (item 5 and
the black line), absorption decreases because nonscattered
light is blocked by absorbing elements. In this case, the
black line and item 5 imitate the presence of a light-
absorbing tumor, which was not visible at the start of the
experiment but then appeared with good contrast.
A fragment of a report on laboratory work performed by a

student for a 0.5-mm thick porcine liver tissue that was
optically cleared with an OCA: a vape containing 65%
glycerol and 35% propylene glycol. The images obtained
with the camera of smartphone 1 were processed using
Adobe® Photoshop® and SciDAVis software.

Conclusion
Many years of experience conducting these classes have
shown that university students in their first year of study,
who have only high school courses in physics, mathematics,
computer science, chemistry, and biology, are quite capable
of doing an experiment at home on the optics of dispersed
media of natural origin, which include biological tissues.
Reference
1. V. V. Tuchin, Tissue Optics: Light Scattering Methods
and Instruments for Medical Diagnostics, 3rd ed., SPIE
Press, p. 988 (2015) [doi: 10.1117/3.1003040].

The Importance of Learning Both the Great

Potential of Optics and the Significant Practical
Challenges of Meeting It
Wolfgang Osten
University Stuttgart, Germany
Remembering my university time at the Friedrich-Schiller
University in Jena, Germany, I can only conclude that
I had wonderful teachers. My area of study was physics,
but I specialized in optics. This was mainly motivated by
my fascination for holography so I made wrote my diploma
thesis on Coherence Optics. One of the lectures that I was
required to hear at the time was Optical Imaging. This
lecture was given by Christian Hofmann, a manager from
ZEISS and a visiting professor at the universities in Jena
and Ilmenau.
I cannot remember any other lecture that was as unique in
its speed and its depth as well. But two other peculiarities
about Hofmann’s lecture shaped me in the long term and
significantly influenced my attitude towards teaching
optics. At any moment during his lecture, a student could
interrupt him and ask questions. He would immediately
stop his flow of words and his extremely fast writing on the
black board and start to give another lecture off the cuff.
We all then sat on our benches with open mouths, ears and
eyes trying to follow his deep excursions into, for example,
the wide field of electrodynamics. The other peculiarity was
the way he taught us both the great potential and the
challenges of designing optical systems with a high level of
imaging quality. Thus, he did not start by writing Maxwell
equations on the black board and deriving from them the
features of light. He started by asking the question: What
do we expect from an ideal optical imaging? The way he
tried to answer that question became an excursion into the
realm of Gaussian or paraxial optics—a purely mathemat-
ical response based on linear transformations and collinea-
tion. What we learned from it gave insight into what we
can expect from optical imaging in the most ideal case and
what the challenges are in designing a system that at least
approximately fulfills the properties of an ideal system.

This was, admittedly, a very dry start, which, however,

opened up the view to what must be done in order to
achieve a high level of imaging quality. The answers came
later when geometrical optics, wave optics, aberration
theory, photometry, and Fourier optics were extensively
examined.
When I implemented a similar approach to my lectures at
the Bremen and Stuttgart universities, the student
response was at first ambivalent. My precursors had
preferred a more classical or intuitive way of teaching.
However, with time, and as the lectures progressed, the
students and assistants understood the advantages of this
approach and grew to appreciate not only the potential of
optical imaging but also the challenges to achieving them.
In the flowchart on the next page, I have tried to visualize
the interconnections of the different models for presenting
and understanding the features of an optical imaging. I am
convinced that there is always room to make a presentation
even better. In any case, the biggest gift for me as a teacher
of optics is seeing the glow in my students’ eyes and feeling
their hunger to hear more when I talk about the great
fascination of optics, as well as its significant challenges.

peculiarities of different models for presenting classical optics.

An attempt to visualize the interconnections and main

Specific Lessons

John Greivenkamp with an antique telescope (photo credit:
Wyant College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona).

Specific Lessons 97
Could Our Eye Be a Single Sphere?
Yobani Mejía
Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia
When I teach the Gaussian formula for a single spherical
surface, n0 /s0 n/s 5 (n0 n)/R, I like to mention two
examples: the human eye and the refractive sphere.
In a first approximation, within the paraxial region, a
reduced schematic eye estimates the image in the retina. It
is composed of two parts: the rear part is a spherical
surface of radius R0, and the frontal part is also a spherical
surface of radius rc , R0, as shown in the figure below. The
medium bounded by these surfaces has an equivalent
refractive index neq 4/3.1 With regard to the shape of this
eye model, I ask students whether it is possible to have an
eye as a single sphere.
rc
R0
V P'
neq
Reduced schematic human eye.

Then, after some discussion, I pose the problem of the
refraction of light at a glass sphere of radius R0 and index
3/2 when it is immersed in air with index 1.0. First, I ask
the students to sketch the refracting rays coming from the
infinite. Some of them draw the point where the rays
converge inside the sphere, and others draw it outside the
sphere, but no one draws it in the second vertex. From the
Gaussian formula, at each surface, it is found that
the point at which all the rays converge is outside (at R0/2)
the second vertex, as shown in the figure below.

98 Specific Lessons
n=1 1 2 n=1
R0
C F'1
n' = 3/2 s'2 = R 0 /2
s2 = R 0
s'1 = f '1= 3R 0
Refraction of a parallel beam at a sphere.
Finally, I ask them what we need to change in the

schematic eye to have an eye like a single sphere, in order
for a parallel incident beam to converge at the second
vertex. The solution implies a change in the refractive
index n0 . From the Gaussian formula, with s 5 ∞, and
s0 5 2R0, the answer is n0 = 2.
When I talk about this with eye specialists (optometrists,
ophthalmologists), they are surprised, and tell me that
they had never thought about it. In some way, the human
eye must have the current shape because, in our bodies, the
refractive index of fluids like the aqueous humor and
vitreous humor are close to that of water.
This simple exercise allows students to understand that
the general geometry of the human eye can be explained
with the Gaussian formula.
Reference
1. D. Atchison and G. Smith, Optics of the Human Eye,
Butterworth-Heinemann (2000).

Specific Lessons 99
Teaching Optics by Analogy and Association
Mitsuo Takeda
Utsunomiya University, Japan
Analogy and association help students to gain a systematic
and unified understanding of seemingly different subjects
and physical phenomena in optics.
The wave equation,
∇2 uðr; tÞ 5 ð1=c2 Þ½∂2 uðr; tÞ=∂t2
has space–time symmetry. Its general solution can be

expressed by superposition of elementary plane waves:
exp½iðk · r vtÞ 5 expðik · rÞ expðivtÞ
which have two-fold symmetries between the variables in

space (k, r) and time (v, t), as well as between those in the
signal domain (r, t) and the frequency domain (k, v). This
permits an interchange of the roles played by the variables
and thereby serves as the origin of analogy.
In this example of space–time analogy, Fizeau’s channeled

spectral fringes, generated by double time pulses in the
temporal spectrum domain, are explained in association

100 Specific Lessons
with Young’s fringes, generated by double slits in the spatial

spectrum domain, which is more familiar to students.
Viewing the lower figure, it should be easy for students to
imagine that Young’s fringes would become holographic
fringes if one of the double slits were replaced by an
aperture with its transmittance representing an object. By
analogy, the students would be able to understand the
principle of time holography—in which one of the double
pulses is replaced by a waveform representing a temporal
object—without much difficulty.
When learning interferometry, students can gain a unified
understanding of the principles of temporal and spatial
heterodyne techniques by noting their formal analogy.
Analogy is not only of interest per se, but suggests to
students that, if there is a principle that works with a time
variable, there is a similar principle that works with a
space variable, and vice versa. Understanding this will
help students increase their capacity for invention.

Specific Lessons 101
Six Myopic Engineers and the ?? System
Shanti Bhattacharya
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India
Imagine you’re in a plane, 10 km above the ground, and
flying at an extremely high velocity. The plane will travel
12.5 million km, and throughout the flight, it must
maintain its height with an error of only ±1.5 m. This
plane has a very specific flight path or track that it must fly
over. The width of the plane is only a couple of meters, and
it must stay centered over the track, which is of a slightly
smaller width. As if this wasn’t challenging enough, the
track below is moving both horizontally by ±875 m and
vertically by ±2.5 km, as the plane flies. What optical
system do you think this represents? If you haven’t guessed
by now, maybe this last clue will help. The flight path is not
straight but a spiral.
This is how I start teaching the course Optical Engineer-

ing.1 I always begin the very first lecture with the following
statement, “I am going to present an analogy to an optical
system. This is a system that you have all used, and many
of you probably own.”* I then ask students to guess the
optical system represented by the analogy,2 which, as you
have seen, describes a plane flying in a flight path with
very tight specifications.
Everyone loves a puzzle, so this is a great way to start any
class, but the reason that it takes students time to get the
answer to this particular question is that most of them
*
This used to be true when I started teaching this course in 2005!

don’t think of the CD pickup as an optical device. To be fair,

I teach the course in the Department of Electrical
Engineering. Most of the students are training to be
electrical engineers, and the others are from departments
such as Mechanical Engineering, Engineering Physics,
Engineering Design, etc. For many students, their last
encounter with optics would have been in high school.
Whatever the reason, not surprisingly, most students
classify the CD player as an electronic device. And that is
another reason I love using this example—because that
classification isn’t wrong; the CD pickup is an electronic
device. (Who am I to argue with Wikipedia?3)
The ensuing discussion always reminds me of the story of
the Six Blind Men and the Elephant.**,*** Some students
will insist that the CD player is an electronic device with
some optics in it, and others will argue the reverse; the few
mechanical engineers in the class, who probably never
thought about the innards of this system before, start to
wonder aloud about all the nifty little mechanical devices
and motors in it. The class has just started, and a healthy
discussion is already in progress, which sets the tone for
the entire course. This is a good way to begin any class, but
the great thing about teaching optics is that there is no
dearth of examples of devices that students have used, or
optical phenomena they have personally witnessed, that
can kickstart such conversations. In addition, the CD
pickup very quickly conveys to students the idea that
“optical” systems are rarely purely optical. Most students
electing to take this course probably already understand
that optical systems are quite interdisciplinary. This
particular example reinforces the importance of this
diversity in a very elegant way. And isn’t that the power
of optics? Optics is used in so many systems today—and
**
The full poem, called “The Blind Men and the Elephant” by John
Godfrey Saxe (1816–1887) can be accessed at https://www.
extension.iastate.edu/4h/files/page/files/The%20Blind%20Men%
20and%20the%20Elephant.pdf.
***
The scientists in the figure “Six Myopic Engineers and the CD
Player” were drawn by my daughter, Sumitra Bhattacharya.

we’re not talking about the obvious ones like cameras and
microscopes. From easing our lives by giving us the ability
to flick channels from the comfort of our armchair to the
small but life-saving pulse oximeter, optics is quietly
revolutionizing the world. I end that first class by telling
students that this course will equip them to speak the
language of optics and allow them to be part of this
revolution.
Six myopic engineers and the CD player.
The first CD players were sold in 1982. And while some

labs or fabrication facilities still insist on using only CDs as
storage devices (no pen drives allowed!), and music CDs
sold more than expected in 2021, it’s probably time to
change this example. I think the smart phone will be a
wonderful system to use. I just need to find an analogy as
impressive as the CD–airplane one. Any suggestions?

References
1. https://nptel.ac.in/courses/108106161
2. https://www.repairfaq.org/sam/cdfaq.htm
Note: While the main idea of the analogy is taken from
this reference, I’ve modified the numbers using a linear
conversion scale. In the end, the exact numbers used are
not that important, except to highlight what a difficult
task this is.
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD_player

Bent Seesaw
Jim Schwiegerling
John taught geometrical optics to multiple generations of
graduate students. For several of those years, I taught the
undergraduate version of his course. We had many
discussions regarding teaching the material. While we
could never agree on the correct way of writing the imaging
equation, we did agree that the students who struggled
with the material seem to struggle with the most
fundamental concepts. Lacking the proper foundation
meant that these students were lost with more advanced
concepts. Many of our discussions were coming up with
easy visualizations for this fundamental material. One of
John’s favorites was the bent seesaw.
The bent seesaw is a visualization to illustrate the object
and image locations. While these relationships are easily
determined from the imaging equation, students may have
difficulty visually analyzing a system, especially when the
object or image is virtual. For positive-powered lenses, the
seesaw is bent such that, when the left side is horizontal,
the right side is bent toward, the ground as shown below.
The planks of the seesaw schematically represent the

upper marginal ray before and after the lens. The lens
serves as the fulcrum of the seesaw. The optical axis lies
along the ground plane, with the front and rear focal points
placed as shown. In this particular case, the left plank is
horizontal, so the object is located at infinity. The right
plank is bent downward, passing through the rear focal
point.

As the seesaw tips through different angles, the object and

image locations follow from the orientations of the left and
right planks. When the left plank is tilted downward, the
object is real. If the right plank is tilted downward, the
image is real. If the object is to the left of the front focal
point, the real image is to the right of the rear focal point. If
the object is to the right of the front focal point, the virtual
image is to the left of the front focal point. From these
illustrations, the various object/image relationships are
easily visualized for a positive-powered lens.
For a lens with negative power, the seesaw simply needs to
be bent in the opposite direction. When the left plank is
horizontal, the right plank is now bent upward to appear as
if it is angled toward the rear focal point (which is now on
the left side).
Tilting the seesaw now gives the various combinations of

object and image relationships. As the left plank moves up,
denoting a virtual object, the right plank moves down,
giving a virtual image. When the left plank appears to pass
through F, the right plank is horizontal. Further raising
the left plank now tilts the right plank downward to give a

real image. Tilting the left plank downward means that a

real object is formed with a virtual image to its right.
As I take over John’s class in the Fall of 2022, I only hope

that I can match his dedication and enthusiasm. His efforts
will be continued.

Phase Measurement: Simplicity,

Beauty, and Uncertainty
Qian Kemao and Yuchi Chen

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
In 1997, Kemao started his PhD study on phase measure-
ment for precision engineering. He initially knew of Dr.
John Greivenkamp’s work through his 1984 paper.1
(Kemao finally met John at the SPIE Optics + Photonics
Conference in San Diego in 2014.) This paper used least-
squares fitting (LSF) for phase estimation from phase-
shifted fringe patterns with random and known phase
shifts. The simplicity and beauty of this three-page article
make it a classic work. The idea to use LSF influenced
Kemao’s work implicitly and explicitly. Some of his related
works are depicted in the flowchart and described in the
text as three generalizations and three combinations.
Some related works on phase measurement.
Generalization 1: Kemao proposed using the windowed

Fourier transform (WFT) for fringe pattern analysis such
as phase extraction and denoising. It was later found that
the WFT is a maximum-likelihood estimator, and it turned
out to be a LSF in a very general sense.2

Generalization 2 vs Combination 1: In John’s work, the

phase shifts need to be known. Wang and Han proposed the
advanced iterative algorithm (AIA), which essentially used
LSF alternatively for phase estimation and phase shift
estimation until converged, and thus was applicable for
unknown phase shifts.3 Later, Kemao et al. combined WFT
with John’s LSF to achieve the same goal, where the WFT
and the LSF were responsible for phase-shift estimation
and phase extraction, respectively.4 In general, the phase
is static since phase shifting is involved.
Combination 2: The WFT and the LSF were combined
again, in a slightly different way, to extract a dynamic
phase from a sequence of fringe patterns in a frame-wise
manner, where the WFT and the LSF were responsible for
phase denoising and phase extraction, respectively. A
unique feature of this method is that neither phase shifting
nor a carrier was needed during this process.5
Generalization 3 and Combination 3: The AIA’s
convergence and accuracy are uncertain when various error
sources are present. Yuchi Chen (the second author), in his
4 years of PhD study starting from 2018, worked on this
problem. The convergence was confirmed through thou-
sands of simulations; the error sources were handled by the
proposed general iterative algorithm (GIA),6 and more
interestingly, the phase-shifting algorithms for known
and unknown phase shifts were integrated as a hybrid
solution.7 We had the goal of making the GIA a simple and
beautiful framework, and indeed we accomplished this.
However, we still need to see how it works in other
applications, which is a new uncertainty for us to address.
The pursuit of simplicity and beauty and the emergence of
uncertainty has been consistently encouraging researchers
to move forward. John was one of these researchers.
References
1. J. Greivenkamp, “Generalized data reduction for het-
erodyne interferometry,” Optical Engineering 23(4),
234350 (1984) [doi: 10.1117/12.7973298].

2. Q. Kemao, Windowed Fringe Pattern Analysis, SPIE

Press (2013) [doi: 10.1117/3.1002080].
3. Z. Wang and B. Han, “Advanced iterative algorithm for
phase extraction of randomly phase-shifted interfero-
grams,” Optics Letters 29(14), 1671–1673 (2004).
4. Q. Kemao, H. Wang, W. Gao, L. Feng, and S. H. Soon,
“Phase extraction from arbitrary phase-shifted fringe
patterns with noise suppression,” Optics and Lasers in
Engineering 48(6), 684–689 (2010).
5. L. Kai and Q. Kemao, “Dynamic phase retrieval in
temporal speckle pattern interferometry using least
squares method and windowed Fourier filtering,” Optics
Express 19(19), 18058–18066 (2011).
6. Y. Chen and Q. Kemao, “General iterative algorithm for
phase-extraction from fringe patterns with random
phase-shifts, intensity harmonics and non-uniform
phase-shift distribution,” Optics Express 29(19),
30905–30962 (2021).
7. Y. Chen and Q. Kemao, “Phase-shifting algorithms with
known and unknown phase shifts: comparison and
hybrid,” Optics Express 30(5), 8275–8302 (2022).

Writing a Good Scientific Paper
Chris A. Mack
Fractilia, LLC, USA
Learning to write a high-quality paper benefits both the
writer and the reader, and is thus a useful part of
graduate-level education in science and engineering.
Fortunately, you do not have to be a good writer to write
a good science paper, but you do have to be a careful writer.
Typically, writing for a peer-reviewed journal requires
learning and executing a specific formula for presenting
scientific work, with the goal that readers will judge it by
the quality of the science rather than the quality of the
writing. That formula begins with the structure of the
paper, and most papers follow the “IMRaD” format:
Introduction, Method (materials, experiment, theory,
design, model), Results and Discussion, Conclusions.
Introduction: What is the paper about, and why should
the reader care? To answers these questions, the introduc-
tion should cover the scope, novelty, and significance of the
work. Writing from the general to the specific, establish a
territory (what is the field of the work, why is this field
important, what has already been done?), then establish a
niche (indicate a gap, raise a question, or challenge prior
work in this territory—pose the research questions), and
finally occupy that niche (outline the purpose and
announce the present research). Avoid unnecessary back-
ground (things you can assume the intended audience
already knows) and avoid exaggerating the importance of
your work.
Method: Describe how the results were generated, with
sufficient detail (including citations) so that another in the
field can validate your conclusions. Internal validity means
that the conclusions drawn are supported by the results
presented. External validity refers to the degree that the
conclusions can be generalized (rather than being applica-
ble only to the narrow confines of this one work). Avoid
including results in the method section, extraneous detail,
or treating the method as a chronological history of events.

Results and Discussion: Present the results, organized

to make them as accessible as possible to the reader,
clearly indicating what is new to this work. Evidence does
not explain itself. The purpose of the discussion section is
to explain the results and show how they help to answer
the research questions posed in the introduction. This
discussion generally passes through the stages of summa-
rizing the results, discussing whether results are expected
or unexpected, comparing these results to previous work,
interpreting and explaining the results (often by compari-
son to a theory or model), and hypothesizing about their
generality. Avoid presenting results that are never dis-
cussed, discussing results that are not presented, ignoring
results that do not support the conclusions, or drawing
conclusions from results without providing sound logical
arguments to back them up.
Conclusions: Provide a very brief summary of the results
and discussion, showing how each research question posed
in the introduction has been addressed, then explain how
the work is significant. The goal here is to provide the most
general claims that can be supported by the evidence. The
conclusion should concisely provide the key message(s) the
author wishes to convey. Avoid repeating the abstract,
repeating background information from the introduction,
introducing new evidence or new arguments not found in
the results and discussion, repeating the arguments made
in the results and discussion, or failing to address all of the
research questions set out in the introduction.
There are, of course many other considerations in writing a
good scientific paper, but the most important one is to be
reader-focused. Think always about serving the needs of
the reader. Only then will your paper go beyond that and
serve your needs as well.
Reference
1. C. Mack, How to Write a Good Scientific Paper, SPIE
Press (2018) [doi: 10.1117/3.2317707].

Exciplexes and Excimers and the Importance of

Calling Them by Their Proper Names
Uzodinma Okoroanyanwu
University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA
Research on electronically excited supermolecules exci-
plexes and excimers and their applications continue to fill
the pages of scientific and technical journals and books,
especially those dealing with laser systems, including those
published by SPIE. One cannot help but notice some
confusion and inconsistency in the nomenclature of these
excited supermolecules. Unfortunately, excimer has
become the generic term used to broadly describe these
excited supermolecules, especially in technical publications
in optics and related fields. The error and confusion arise
primarily from sloppiness and a lack of understanding of
the roots of these terms and thus their true meaning.
The precision required in science in the accurate naming of
objects in the natural world underscores the need for
rational scientific nomenclature. As a system of names or
terms, or the rules for forming these terms, rational
scientific nomenclature has always been instrumental in
the development of scientific fields. It facilitates the
reproducibility of experimental results, which is a central
pillar of the scientific method. Standard scientific nomen-
clature also ensures that everyone is reading from the
same page. This explains why today we have internation-
ally adopted codes of nomenclature governing specific
scientific disciplines ranging from biology to chemistry to
physics to astronomy. For biology, we have the Linnaeus
system of binomial nomenclature for biological species. For
chemistry, we have the International Union of Pure and
Applied Chemistry nomenclature for chemical elements
and compounds, as well as for uniform definitions and
description of chemical principles. For physics, we have the
Système Internationale (International System) (SI), other-
wise known as the metric system for measurements of
physical quantities and their definitions. For astronomy,
we have the International Union of Astronomy nomencla-
ture for official names and designations of astronomical

objects, as well as for uniform definitions for astronomical

principles.
I believe the time has come to open a discussion on the
adoption of the proper nomenclature for electronically
excited supermolecules in publications in optics and related
fields. What better place to initiate this discussion than
SPIE’s Field Guide to Education of Optics: A Tribute to
John Greivenkamp, a book with a focus on optics education?
Were he alive today, I believe that Prof. Greivenkamp
would be in support of this proposal. Accounts by people
who knew him personally attest to his vehement argument
over specific language and wording in scientific writing in
general and the Field Guide series in particular. Given the
extensive applications of ultraviolet lasers (see the table)
made possible by these excited supermolecules, this
publication offers a potential opportunity to begin this
discussion. Some of these ultraviolet laser-based applica-
tions include deep-UV lithography, optical microscopy, and
micromachining, to mention but a few.
Examples of exciplex and excimer lasers in use in optical

technologies.
Laser Excited- Emission

type state Characteristic wavelength
complex spectrum (nm)
F2 Excimer UV 157
ArF Exciplex UV 193
KrF Exciplex UV 248
XeCl Exciplex UV 308
In chemistry, the word complex is used to describe an

association of molecules. Just as a molecule is an associa-
tion of atoms, a complex is an association of molecules, and
the word supermolecule may be appropriately used when
the association energies are relatively large. A dimer is a
diatomic molecule in which the two constituent atoms
are identical. The association of an electronically excited

molecule M * with a ground-state molecule N leads to an

exciplex (excited complex) if N ≠ M, or leads to an excimer
(excited dimer) if N = M:
M þ N ⇌ ðM NÞ ðexciplexÞ

M þ M ⇌ ðM M Þ ðor M 2 Þ ðexcimerÞ
The term exciplex is therefore the recommended general

term for all electronically excited complexes, while excimer
is a special case of exciplex when the excited and ground
state species are identical. A laser in which the lasing
species of the excited-state complex is a dimer, such as F2,
is correctly called an excimer laser, while that in which the
lasing species of the excited-state complex comprises two
heteroatoms, such as ArF, KrF, or XeCl, is appropriately
called an exciplex laser. The lasing mechanisms of these
systems have been described in the literature.1–5
Finally, accuracy in scientific and technical publications in
optics and related fields should not only be about the actual
experimental results; it should also include the use of the
proper nomenclature of the involved electronically excited
supermolecules—be they exciplexes or excimers. This will
prevent unnecessary confusion and inconsistency.
References
1. U. Okoroanyanwu, Chemistry and Lithography, SPIE
Press, pp. 610–616 (2010) [doi: 10.1117/3.821384].
2. K. Jain, Excimer Laser Lithography, SPIE Press,
pp. 91–131 (1990).
3. A. Reiser, Photoreactive Polymers: The Science and
Technology of Resists, John Wiley & Sons, p. 254 (1989).
4. D. L. Andrews, Lasers in Chemistry, Springer-Verlag,
pp. 39–40 (1986).
5. J. Ewing, “Rare-gas halide lasers,” Phys. Today 31(5),
93 (1978).

Advances in 3D Human Face Imaging and

Automated Facial Expression Analysis
Megan A. Witherow and Khan M. Iftekharuddin

Old Dominion University, USA
Ubiquitous to interpersonal communication and more
universal than language, human facial expressions have
been a source of intrigue since the time of Darwin.
Widespread applications in psychology, medicine, educa-
tion, marketing, security, human–computer interactions,
and more have motivated decades of research in automated
facial imaging and facial expression analysis (FEA). Among
many promising methods, FEA using constituent action
units (AUs) has gained attention. Advances in modern
sensing offer rich 2D and 3D facial imaging data that are
amenable to automated FEA. Recent advances in sensing
and machine learning (ML), and specifically deep learning
(DL) methods, offer advantages in processing 3D imaging
data. Thus, sensing and analysis of 3D expressions has
emerged as an active multidisciplinary area for optical and
digital information processing education and research.
Stereophotogrammetry is the use of
multiple photographic imaging measure-
ments to estimate the 3D coordinate points
of an object, such as a face. Modern 3D
stereophotogrammetric imaging systems
represent the facial surface with near–
ground-truth dense point clouds. These
point clouds often undergo preprocessing
steps such as 3D image registration and
normalization followed by feature extrac-
tion from the 3D point cloud data. In a
traditional ML pipeline, feature engineering is performed
to compute geometric features (such as 3D curvature
features) and spatial features (such as geodesic distances
between facial landmarks). The features are subsequently
input into ML models, such as k-nearest neighbor or
support vector machines, for learning and classification. By
contrast, DL models learn feature extraction and classifi-
cation steps directly from the data. Different types of DL

models require different input 3D Facial Image

Acquisition
representations for the 3D Preprocessing
facial data. Common represen-
Feature
tations include 3D occupancy Extraction
Deep
grids for models such as 3D Learning Machine
convolutional neural networks Learning
(CNNs), 3D meshes for graphi-
cal CNNs, and raw point clouds
for PointNets. Facial Expression Classification
Teaching 3D FEA occurs best

through hands-on experiments that apply theory to solve
real problems. Advances in imaging technology, processing
power, and storage capability have opened the doors for
experiential learning opportunities in sensing and proces-
sing of 3D data. There remain many exciting open research
areas for students and researchers. Powerful ML/DL
methods have proved promising for robust AU-based
analysis of neutral, happy, sad, and surprised expressions.
However, expressions of fear and anger, with confounding
subtle and co-occurring AUs, remain challenging. Current
state-of-the-art 3D imaging and FEA methods still have a
long way to go before they are ready to address the
challenges of real-world applications such as automated
expression analysis in autism intervention. Furthermore,
due to large-scale variations in 3D data, existing methods
fail to generalize to subjects outside of the training set.
Overcoming these exciting challenges will be the next
frontier to expanding 3D FEA beyond the laboratory and
into real-world applications.

Notes on Photonic Concepts and Ideas vs. Algebra
Brian Culshaw
University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom
Photonics is a fascinating subject, principally because it is
the only branch of physics that we can see! There are also
countless useful equations, which tend to dominate the
teaching process. However, the fact that we can see light is
a powerful tool in teaching, understanding, and using
photonics. Among the phenomena we can see and use, we
have scattering of light and diffraction, focusing of light,
and reflection and refraction. Let’s spend a little time
exploring a few examples. We also need a few kit pieces to
illustrate concepts. A laser pointer can be used for much
more than putting a dot on a projector screen, and a
magnifying glass is also a very good contributor.
In a homogeneous medium, light obligingly travels in a
straight line. Usually, the air we breathe is homogeneous
enough to make the point—although even shining your
laser pointer through a darkened room illustrates that we
can, after all, see scattered light, which tells us where the
laser beam is traveling. This is a very useful accidental tool
by which to visualize light rays and trace the path they
take.
The same tool—the laser pointer—also obligingly illus-
trates refraction at media interfaces, diffraction gratings,
and the impact of a variety of diffracting media, for
example, some thinly woven cloth; there’s some in every
household. You’ll very easily see the impact of spacing on
direction. Stretch some partially transparent cloth—your
shirt or blouse, for example—and see how the diffraction
angle changes as the tension increases and/or changes
direction.
Refraction is a little more evasive—simply because you’re
really looking for a change in the direction of a light beam
as it reaches an interface. However, a little imagination
soon gives some straightforward examples. Even a pane of
glass can give some insight when light is incident at an
angle to the glass surface then that angle changes by the

amount by which the beam moves—including incident

perpendicular to the surface when the beam doesn’t change
direction at all!
These are but a few examples of how the essential concepts
of optics—reflection, diffraction, and refraction—can be
readily demonstrated using everyday equipment. It also
helps all concerned to see and expect the results of an
illumination source on the object you see and the light
reflected or scattered from it. The general idea is to raise
awareness among all concerned of the simple observation
that the sometimes apparently complex concepts of optics
are in the everyday environment. See the light!!!
The see-to-teach-and-use factors:

See:
• Light travels in straight lines except for scatter and
refraction.
• Scatter can be seen in even slightly dusty, but
otherwise transparent, media.
• Refraction can be seen, too.
• Color and color changes—combinations of material
and illumination—can be perceived.
What’s needed as tools?

• a visible laser
• dust to create scatter
• vapor from which to scatter to see light beams
• a focused torch or similar light source

A Classical Approach to Teaching

Light–Matter Interaction
Eric Van Stryland and David Hagan

One of the authors (EVS) had a teacher in his third year of
college who said that the most important problem in physics
was the simple-harmonic oscillator (SHO). As the years
have gone by, the truth of his statement has continued to be
reinforced. Teaching a course on the interaction of light with
matter can be greatly facilitated by spending considerable
time teaching aspects of the damped, driven SHO. Modeling
matter as “electrons on springs” provides remarkable
insight into absorption and refraction in atomic/molecular/
semiconductor/dielectric materials:
2~
m ∂ ∂trðtÞ ∂~
rðtÞ
2 þ Гm ∂t þ mv0~
2 ~
rðtÞ 5 −eEðtÞ; with solution
e ~
EðvÞ
~
rðvÞ 5 −
m v0 v2 ivГ
2
When teaching a course in this area, it is useful to include

in the first lecture a computer simulation of the solution of
the SHO equation of motion. Rather than focusing on the
temporal growth of the oscillator versus time after a
harmonic force is turned on (e.g., turning on a laser), we
show several aspects of the steady-state solution while
varying the frequency of the driving force. This shows the
amplitude and phase with respect to that of the driving
force of oscillation going through resonance. Using this
model for electron displacement (or nuclear displacement
for vibrations) allows for calculation of the polarization
~
PðvÞ 5 Ne~ rðvÞ with the electron density N, giving the
optical susceptibility:
Ne2 1 v2p
xðvÞ 5 5 2
e0 m v0 v ivГ v0 v2 ivГ
2 2
Along with the relationship e(v) = 1 + x(v) this allows for

discussion in some detail of the complex Lorentz optical
susceptibility, absorption and refraction, 2-level atoms and

optical transitions, Lorentzian line shapes, polarization,

metals and Drude theory, vibrations, plasma frequency,
and the dielectric function from which we can calculate the
transmission, reflection, and absorption of some sample
material. Some key points about x(v) are (see figure):
1. The maximum amplitude is in resonance at v v0 and

is purely imaginary.
2. At resonance, the phase difference between E and r is
90 deg.
3. At high frequencies (v ≫ v0), the amplitude of x(v) goes
to 0.
4. At low frequencies (v ≪ v0), a finite real amplitude of
v2p =v20 is obtained.
Once this model has been discussed for bound (Lorentz)
and free (Drude) electrons, we extend it to vibrations in
molecules and phonons in crystals, which are again closely
related to the SHO. The model even extends to the
modes of cavities (e.g., to describe the density of states in
semiconductors/dielectrics) and thus black-body radiation.
And this model can be easily extended to nonlinear optics
by adding a small term in the restoring force that is
proportional to a higher-order of r, e.g., r2.
These models allow for discussion of other concepts, such
as local field correction factors, Kramers–Kronig relations,
Sellmeier equations, etc. It is remarkable that so much of

light–matter interaction can be described without the

need for quantum mechanics. Although many of these
approaches can occasionally be found in condensed matter
or spectroscopy texts, there are a few textbooks on light–
matter interaction that follow this approach, notably Hopf
and Stegeman,1 Wooten,2 and Fox.3
References
1. F. A. Hopf and G. I. Stegeman, Applied Classical
Electrodynamics, Vol 1: Linear Optics, Wiley (1985).
2. F. Wooten, Optical Properties of Solids, Academic Press
(1972).
3. M. Fox, Optical Properties of Solids, Oxford University
Press (2003).

Laboratory Courses as the Foundation / Pillars of

Optomechnical Engineering
Jonathan Ellis
Micro-LAM, Inc., USA
Learning practical concepts requires getting outside one’s
comfort zones. Often, learning by doing, such as in
laboratory classes, can cement concepts that are first
introduced in lecture courses. However, a concept need not
necessarily be taught in a lecture first or from first
principles. Rather, the application of concept often neces-
sitates understanding broad concepts that are related and
can only be fully understood by doing. Two examples of this
are learning in laboratory classes and learning cross-
disciplines such as optomechanical engineering.
In laboratory classes, building and aligning a simple
Michelson interferometer or point source microscope using
benchtop components can take hours. Those hours are not
lost, rather they are used to understand mounting the
optics, or the painstaking process of alignment, or the
sensitivity of one degree of freedom over another. It may
seem frustrating at first, but these are skills that are only
fully realized by physically performing them. Similarly,
immersing oneself in a new disciple can be painstaking at
first. But learning and understanding a few key concepts
can build a foundation for future success.
Laboratory Courses as the Foundation
Laboratory courses require more resources to educate
students effectively, from equipment, software, and space
to instructors, and time. Building a relatively simple
optical device, a point source microscope (PSM), can be
used to impart many optical concepts and can be accom-
plished with generic, off-the-shelf components and several
key laboratory devices.

The first step in building a PSM is beam collimation from a

simple fiber source. This can be accomplished with a shear
plate, which also demonstrates interference. The focus
through the beam is found by placing a mirror at the
measurement point, demonstrating retroreflection.
The reflected beam through the beamsplitter can then be
collimated again with the shear plate by correctly aligning
the mirror to the measurement point. Lastly, a tube lens is
aligned to achieve the smallest focal point.
This can be easily expanded or modified for other concepts.
Adding a mirror on the beamsplitter and removing the tube
lens changes this to an interferometer. And each of these
systems can be reinforced via first-principles calculations
and then modeling and analysis can be performed with
optical design software!
Pillars of Optomechanical Engineering
Summarizing another discipline, mechanical engineering,
such that optical engineers and scientists can utilize key
information, is a difficult endeavor. Nomenclature, vari-
able notation, and common abbreviations are some of the
issues faced when crossing disciplines. For example, the
acronym TIR to many in the optics industry is total

internal reflection. But TIR can also readily refer to total

indicator runout for lens centering, metrology, and
manufacturing. Understanding the language across dis-
ciplines is the first step to branching out to new fields.
For optomechanical engineering, many concepts are
required to truly master the discipline. However, many of
those concepts can be distilled into three different concepts
that form the pillars of optomechanical engineering and
affect optical and mechanical components alike.
Everything is a spring. No component has infinite

material stiffness, and geometry can affect the compli-
ance, even for supposedly large, rigid bodies.
DL: displacement
F
DL 5 F: applied force
k
k: stiffness
Everything is a thermometer. Every component has

property changes (dimensional, optical, etc.) as a function
of temperature.
a: thermal expansion coefficient
DL 5 aLDT L: length
DT : temperature change
dn
dT Refractive index changes as temperature changes.
Whatever happens mechanically will be imprinted on an

optical wavefront. Optomechanical Engineering is the
discipline of understanding and mitigating the impact of
mechanical effects on optical systems.

Reminiscences

Desert Flower, Sphere and Antique Optics Equipment
(photo credit: Wyant College of Optical Sciences, University
of Arizona).

Reminiscences 129
Education in Optics—John’s Way
Toyohiko Yatagai
Utsunomiya University, Japan
I came to know Prof. John E. Greivenkamp 30 years ago
through his paper on interferometric fringe analysis for
aspheric surface measurement, when he was affiliated with
the Eastman Kodak Company. During those days, I was
also involved in developing an automatic aspheric surface
measurement system based on interferometric fringe
analysis. John’s ideas helped me a lot in my understanding
of interferometric fringe analysis.
I then met John at the Optical Sciences Center of the
University of Arizona in the early 2000s. He was happy to
share his ideas on optical surface testing using interferomet-
ric methods, Shack–Hartmann sensors, etc., with me. Later,
in several optical conferences, I observed John as an energetic
force, fully engaged at all times. By then, he had already
established himself as a successful educator. I was elected as
a SPIE Board member in 2011, when I had a chance to
witness an entirely different dimension of John’s activities.
By then, John had already completed many hours as an SPIE
Board member and authored several SPIE journal articles
and books, including the first of the popular SPIE Field
Guides, for which he served as Series Editor.
John at the Spark Museum of Electrical Invention,

Bellingham, Washington, during a 2014 SPIE Board meeting.

130 Reminiscences
Later, in 2012, I invited John to the Utsunomiya

University Center of Optical Research and Education
(CORE). CORE was founded by me in 2007 with the
purpose of promoting education and research in the field of
optics. My vision was to develop CORE into a global center
for optics education and research. The College of Optical
Sciences (OSC) in Tucson, Arizona was our model, and the
Dean of the OSC at that time, Prof. James C. Wyant, fully
understood our mission and supported our activities.
During John’s stay at CORE, he delivered several lectures
on optical measurement and the history of optics.
The most impressive of John’s lectures that I remember
was “The History of Telescopes and Binoculars,” which he
gave at the Utsunomiya Girls’ High School. Most of the
audience was high school girls who had no prior knowledge
of optics. John started, “How do lenses work?” and then
continued with the story of the invention of the telescope
early in the 17th century, including an interesting incident
on a telescope patent.1 The story John narrated was the
following: In the early 1700s, it was believed that
chromatic aberration was very fundamental in its origin
and could not be corrected. A Barrister in London named
Chester Moor Hall had then thought of a solution: the
achromatic doublet. In 1733 he commissioned two different
opticians, Edward Scarlett and James Mann, to make one
lens element each. By chance, both opticians subcontracted
the work to the same man, George Bass. Chester Moor Hall
then continued to keep his invention a secret. Around 1750,
George Bass told John Dollond about the achromatic lens
he had made, or at least the fact that different glasses have
different dispersing powers. Dollond then began a series of
experiments using different types of glass. Dollond’s son,
Peter, saw the potential commercial advantages and
patented the invention in 1758 once they succeeded in
making test lenses. Chester Moor Hall twice attempted to
challenge the patent. He lost his case on the grounds that,
‘the person who should be profited by an invention is the
one who benefits the public by it, not the one who keeps it
locked in his desk drawer.’

Reminiscences 131
This was a landmark decision in patent law that remains

in place to this day. Dollond went on to become the
dominant manufacturer of telescopes in the late 1700s and
early 1800s. In fact, the name Dollond became a synonym
for telescope.
John also emphasized how difficult it was to make
binoculars at that time. Toward the end of his lecture, he
presented his collection of antique optics, including tele-
scopes, microscopes, binoculars, etc., which are currently
displayed in the Museum of Optics at the OSC. His lecture
was so impressive that the girls pounded John with many
questions and became involved in an active conversation,
which is very unusual for Japanese girls. “What is light?”
was one of the most serious questions raised, and John
answered, “It is a very good question. Um. . . . Um. . . . A
kind of wave, sometimes a particle.”
John’s lectures were always prepared with the ingredients
necessary to stimulate a student’s interest. He strongly
believed that, once students’ interest is piqued, there after
they will continue to grow and explore unknown territories
in optics with much ease. This was John’s approach toward
optical education, which I too practiced in my teaching
profession and found to be extremely successful. John lived
a life that reflected his commitment to optics and
education; his life story is a model for many optical
enthusiasts to follow.
Reference
1. F. Watson, Stargazer: The Life and Times of the
Telescope, Da Capo Press (2005).

132 Reminiscences
A Shared Passion for Optics Education:

John Greivenkamp and Harrison Barrett
Kyle Myers
Puente Solutions, LLC, USA
John Greivenkamp was a passionate educator, recognized
for his outstanding teaching by SPIE awarding him the
2017 SPIE María J. Yzuel Educator Award. John and I
were mentored by another passionate educator, arguably
one of the best in optical sciences, Dr. Harrison H. Barrett
of the University of Arizona’s College of Optical Science.
Harry’s impact on imaging science was largely due to his
dedication to teaching and his mentoring of graduate
students. His teaching extended far beyond the classroom,
too. His questions at the microphone during a conference
were known for being mini-tutorials that brought clarity
and depth to the discussion. His many lectures at
conferences and institutions around the world built a far-
reaching community of imaging science enthusiasts.
During his years at the University of Arizona, Harry
taught more than 20 different courses and was the advisor
for over 75 graduate students. When students would ask
him whether they should work in industry, national labs,
or academia, Harry would quickly tell them that it depends
on how they personally measure success—as for himself, he
kept score by the number of dissertations produced in his
group, not by money.
Below are some of the lessons John and I learned from
Harry Barrett regarding how to be an outstanding teacher,
mentor, and influencer in imaging and optical sciences:
1. Keep teaching fresh. Harry brought great enthusiasm to
each course he taught and put considerable effort into
his preparations for each class. Regardless of the
number of times he taught the material, he insisted on
generating new teaching notes for each class to ensure
that his presentations were fresh.
2. Be rigorous and strive for clarity. Harry brought rigor to
all the courses he taught and the research he led. His
books paid incredible attention to detail both in his

Reminiscences 133
efforts to be comprehensive regarding the topics he

covered as well as attention to minute aspects of
notation. Harry was a master of theoretical information
transfer, i.e., the science of determining what informa-
tion is transferred through an imaging system. He was
also a master of practical information transfer, meaning
the practice of developing presentations, course materi-
als, and publications that successfully transferred
information to his audience.
3. Be inclusive. Harry’s research group was one of the first
to include women and other under-represented stu-
dents. He was intentional in the way he shared his
diverse, international network of colleagues and colla-
borators with us, too. Attending a conference with Harry
was an invigorating experience, as he included his
students in wide circles of scientific conversation and
networking.
4. Students deserve second chances (and sometimes one or
two more!) as well as the support to turn those defeats
into success. I observed many students who, after
experiencing failure with prelims or lack of success in
working with an advisor, were offered not only a second
chance by Harry, but also Harry’s personal time spent
helping to prepare the student for that next prelim
round or research experience. The lifeline he offered to
so many made the difference between their dropping out
vs. going on to successful careers in optical science.
5. Give back. Harry and his wife Cathy generously
established the Harrison H. and Catherine C. Barrett
Endowed Chair in Optical Sciences for Cancer Imaging
as a mechanism for supporting a faculty member with
interests in cancer imaging. There were other ways in
which Harry supported students, post-docs, and profes-
sional societies through generous donations. John
Greivenkamp’s own generosity in gifting scholarship
funds and his optical instrument museum to the College
of Optical Sciences are similarly inspiring and will have
a lasting impact on future faculty and students at the
University of Arizona.

134 Reminiscences
Harry Barrett had great passion for his life’s work as a

researcher and educator. He was also a deep lover of life
and adventure outside of work, traveling around the world
and trekking across England, around Ireland, and up past
Everest base camp with Cathy. He gave us a very real and
alive example of living life to the fullest in and out of the
lab. I see many, many parallels in John’s love of optics, of
the University of Arizona and SPIE, of students, of travel,
and of his family. He learned from one of the masters!

Reminiscences 135
Chamblant Lenses, Astigmatism,

and Cylindrical Lenses
Vasudevan Lakshminarayanan
University of Waterloo, Canada
A few years ago, John Greivenkamp and I collaborated on a
small project. The project directly incorporated geometric
optics and optics history and dealt with visual optics, all
three areas of great interest to John. An ophthalmologist in
Pennsylvania, who is also a historian, contacted me about a
pair of spectacles which consisted of Chamblant lenses and
wanted to study the optical properties of the lenses.
The Chamblant lens consists of two joined lenses and is
named after a French optician, Marie-Nicolas-Joseph
Chamblant (1772–1841). The lens had originally been
developed by Pierre Galland (1757–1837), and it appears
that Chamblant fabricated the lens and both of them
received a patent for “mirrored glasses and heliophlogic
and optical instruments made from a new system that
destroys spherical aberrations and can be used for heating
apartments and the melting of metals, etc.”1 An English
architect, Thomas Stedman Whitwell (1784–1840), studied
this lens and concluded that, “The most highly advanta-
geous result of this new system of dioptrics is the complete
destruction of the aberrations which arise from the
sphericity of the lenses of the old system, and by which
the images of objects are so very considerably deformed.”2
An ophthalmologist sent me a spectacle pair that had
Chamblant lenses (see 1st figure), and I procured biconvex
lenses (reading spectacles) from a retail store. Basic
measurements were made (such as power, curvature,
etc.). Since I did not have a Fizeau interferometer, I sent
them to John, who readily agreed to make other measure-
ments. Based on our measurements, we concluded that the
two lenses making up the Chamblant lens were of excellent
optical quality, with better performance than mass-
produced modern lenses, and the Chamblant lens was a
cross-cylinder lens.

136 Reminiscences
The discovery of ocular astigmatism opened up a whole

new need for cylindrical lenses, but astigmatism was not
routinely corrected until the late 19th century. In 1825
George Bidell Airy first described his own astigmatism and
its correction by cylindrical lenses. In fact, it was Airy who
named the condition astigmatism, a term suggested by his
colleague William Whewell in 1846. It should be noted that
Thomas Young had described his own astigmatism in 1801
but did not suggest a cylindrical lens to correct it; he
recommended tilting a spherical lens. The first cylindrical
lenses for spectacles prescription were developed in 1828
by John McAllister in Philadelphia. A brief timeline is
shown in the table.
In a cross-cylinder, the cylinder axes of the two lenses are
perpendicular to each other. In fact, George Stokes (1849)
developed a cross-cylinder lens to correct his own astigma-
tism. The Stokes lens is a variable-power astigmatic lens
comprising, in its standard version, two pure cylindrical
lenses of equal but contrary power that rotate in opposite
directions. The Jackson cross-cylinder is used in modern-
day clinical practice to refine refractive correction.
Our results from the Chamblant lens project can be
summarized as follows:
• Chamblant lenses show a small amount of residual
astigmatism/cylinder with a smaller amount of coma.
The residual cylinder is likely a result of the two
surface cylinders having very slightly different radii.
The tiny amount of coma was likely due to the two
cylinders not being exactly at 90 deg.
• Chamblant lenses have about 5 wavelengths of
residual cylinder (about 0.04 D), which not is clinically
significant.
• The wavefront data showed no sign of spherical
aberration correction. In fact, it is not practical to
correct spherical aberration (SA) with spectacles.
While you could correct SA for a straight-ahead gaze
by adding an r4 shape to the lens, as soon as the eyes

Reminiscences 137
look even slightly to the side, significant coma will

result. This is why even today we do not correct SA
with spectacle lenses. SA correction with contact
lenses can be used because the lens is “fixed” on the
eye and the eye always looks through the same part of
the contact lens. In general, a spectacle lens has an r2
shape. When the eye’s gaze moves away from straight
ahead, prism results. The line of sight is deviated but
by the same amount in both eyes. There could be an
issue if the prescriptions for the two eyes were wildly
different.
• There is no chromatic aberration correction.
• Spherical lenses have even slightly less residual
cylinder.
• Clinically, Chamblant and spherical lenses are identi-
cal, and the user would see no visual difference (see
2nd figure).
Spherical aberration certainly exists in spherical lenses
but, even in the early 1800s, it appears that grinding
techniques were good enough to make it clinically
insignificant; a spherical lens was about equal to a
Chamblant lens in terms of quality—both were equivalent
to a modern mass-produced reading lens. Chamblant
lenses do nothing that spherical lenses do not do. We can
think of absolutely no reason to make lenses that way.
History has also proven this—the technology died almost
instantly. So why should we study technical dead-ends?
Knowledge of what worked and what didn’t work gives
insight into (and provides caveats to) further development
of new technologies and therefore should be a part of
science and engineering education.
This project incorporates John’s varied interests in geo-
metrical optics, visual optics, and optics history and
provides a small example of his intellectual curiosity.

138 Reminiscences
Spectacles with Chamblant lenses.
Imaging with (left) a spherical biconvex lens and (right) a

Chamblant lens.
A brief timeline.
1722 Earliest mention of cylindrical lenses by John

Marshall
1801 Young describes ocular astigmatism in his
own eye.
1804 Galland sends a dissertation to the Athénée,
a learned society, about “Heliophlogie,” con-
cerning the heating effects of lenses and
mirrors described a new lens design later
fabricated by Chamblant.
1813 Galland/Chamblant receive French patent for
the “Chamblant” lens.
1815/ First mention of the use of these lenses in
1816 spectacles by Whitwell, in Repertory of Arts,
Manufactures, and Agriculture (1816)
1824/ Spectacles to correct astigmatism are devel-
1828(?) oped by John McAllister.

Reminiscences 139
1825 George Bidell Airy describes his astigmatism

and correction with cylindrical lenses.
1846 Airy names the ocular condition as astigmatism.
1849 George Stokes develops a variable power
astigmatic lens using cross-cylinders for
astigmatism correction.
1887 Edward Jackson devices the cross-cylinder for
subjective refraction, mainly in the cylinder
axis and power refinement.
References
1. French patent, Arch. dep. des Deux-Sèvres, Fn-a 1513,
Pierre Galland, Marie-Nicolas Chamblant, Patent of
invention, Notice of the system of optics and heliophl-
ogy, s.d. See also: Lamy, J. Pratiques plurielles de la
science: Pierre Galland de Cherveux, géomètre au début
du XIXe siècle (2012) Retrieved from https://journals.
openedition.org/abpo/2328.
2. S. Whitwell, “Description of lenses of a square form
stated to possess very considerable advantages over
spherical ones,” in The Repertory of Arts, Manufactures,
and Agriculture Vol. XXVIII second series (1816)
[In Number CLXIII of December, 1815 (pp. 13–19)
London: Wyatt.]

140 Reminiscences
Remembering John Greivenkamp
Larry C. Andrews
I believe it was during the 1980s that I became a member of
SPIE. There were only a handful of attendees at the first
SPIE Orlando Conference I attended. Times have really
changed since then.
I learned about SPIE’s book publishing program during the
mid-1990s from meetings I had with Eric Pepper, then the
Director of Publications. He encouraged me to consider
SPIE Press as my publisher if I had any ideas for writing a
book, which I did. Later I worked with Tim Lamkins, then
SPIE Press Manager, in the same capacity. During several
discussions with Tim about writing a second edition of one
of my books with coauthor and longtime friend Ron
Phillips, Tim mentioned a new book series that SPIE
Press was planning to launch. The series would be called
Field Guides, and John Greivenkamp was to serve as the
Series Editor.
Tim introduced me to John at one of the SPIE Symposia in
2002. The three of us sat around a table for some time,
while John described in great detail his vision for the Field
Guides. These were to be handy reference booklets of
around 100 pages or so on a major field of optical science,
with concise explanations of a particular topic provided in
1–2 pages. The books would have a spiral binding so that
they could open and lie flat on a table for viewing without
closing by themselves, as most textbooks tend to do.
John was a Professor at the James C. Wyant College of
Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona. A project
like this is something one might expect from a natural and
seasoned educator like John. After listening to his
enthusiastic vision of the Field Guide Series and hearing
his suggestion that I write one in my area of expertise, I
walked away knowing that I would write such a Field
Guide.

Reminiscences 141
John and I finished our Field Guides in roughly the same

timeframe, and both were published in 2004 as the
first and second in the Series. John’s book was FG01
Geometrical Optics and mine was FG02 Atmospheric
Optics. John later approved two more Field Guides that I
wanted to write: FG18 Special Functions (2011) and FG22
Probability, Random Processes, and Data Analysis (2012),
the latter with my coauthor Ron Phillips. John also
accepted a second edition of my Field Guide to Atmospheric
Optics (FG41), published in 2019.
My advice to new members of SPIE is to consider what
knowledge you can pass along to your colleagues in the
form of research papers and/or books. I’ve heard from many
people over the years that “I can’t write a book” or “I don’t
have enough time for that.” You can always make the
time if you want. Many of us have something to
contribute to our particular area of expertise that will be
useful to others. Don’t be afraid to try—you might surprise
yourself.
I didn’t know John very well, having met him only a couple
of times over the years. We lived on opposite sides of the
country so our paths didn’t cross very often. Nonetheless, I
know that John Greivenkamp as Series Editor of the Field
Guides provided a tremendous service to SPIE with this
endeavor and an important and useful resource for the
optical sciences community to enjoy for many years.

142 Reminiscences
Getting the Word Out
Daniel Vukobratovich
Raytheon Missile Systems, USA
Providing an interchange of technical information within
the optical engineering community is one of the most
important functions of SPIE. In the early days, this
interchange consisted of technical meetings and timely
publication of the Proceedings of SPIE, the famous “yellow
books.” Later, the SPIE Press Field Guide series, with John
Greivenkamp as Series Editor, became another highly
accessible source of information.
A personal example shows the role of SPIE in spreading
technical information. Thermal stress in bonded doublet
lenses arising from the different thermal coefficients of
expansions in dissimilar glass types often leads to fracture.
Unfortunately, analyzing the thermal stress is difficult.
Stress singularities at the element edges make computer-
based finite-element analysis inaccurate.
An alternative analytical method sometimes attempted
was to use classical “bonded plate” theory, usually without
success. While working as a consultant on the design of an
optical system employing many bonded doublets, I found a
number of mathematical errors in the bonded plate
solution. Once these errors were corrected, the solution
worked well in predicting thermal stress. Later, I men-
tioned this to Paul Yoder, my good friend, co-author, and
former head of the SPIE Publications Committee. Paul’s
immediate response was: “and you have not published?” I
had signed a proprietary agreement when consulting, but
this had long since expired.
So, in 2015 Paul Yoder and I published a joint paper on this
topic: P. R. Yoder and D. Vukobratovich, “Shear stresses in
cemented and bonded optics due to temperature changes,”
Proc. SPIE 9573, 95730J (2015). The paper presentation
was well received, and, as we had hoped, it served to
inspire further analysis of the problem, with a paper
published by other workers in the field just a few years

Reminiscences 143
later. Our article is widely used and is a good example of

the Society “getting out the word.”
Photograph of a bonded doublet fractured by thermal stress

[P. R. Yoder, Jr. and D. Vukobratovich, “Shear stresses in
cemented and bonded optics due to temperature changes,”
Proc. SPIE 9573, 95730J (2015)].

144 Reminiscences
Optics at ICTP: Bringing Light to

Students from the Developing World
Joseph Niemela
The Abdus Salam ICTP-UNESCO, Italy
It is a great honor to contribute to this SPIE Field Guide as a
tribute to John Greivenkamp, whom I always admired for his
ability to chair difficult meetings that would have sent others
scurrying away, and for getting to the point quickly and often
(not, unfortunately, like what is about to happen here).
First: A little known fact is that I started out as a graduate
student in optics but was lured away early-on to a low-
temperature group with the promise of a trip to Europe.
I was “easy,” I know. Ironically, while I eventually moved
to Europe and the International Centre for Theoretical
Physics (ICTP-UNESCO) in Trieste Italy, I also ended up
being lured back into the wonderful world of international
optics, largely due to people like John Greivenkamp and
one particularly persuasive person at SPIE who also
introduced me to The Clancy Brothers. . .
In Trieste, in fact, I have had the good fortune to work closely
with major optics organizations within our Trieste System
Optical Sciences and Applications (TSOSA) board. TSOSA
provides critical advice, oversight, and support for ICTP-
UNESCO’s many programs in optics education and training,
and in particular the annual ICTP Winter College on Optics,
which brings together many students and young researchers
each year from dozens of countries in the developing world.
The students learn about new trends in optics, but, just as
importantly, can network with both lecturers and peers, and
obtain a reprieve from often-discouraging scientific isolation.
As a number of the countries represented in the College
invariably have strained or no diplomatic relations, it also
serves to support diplomacy through science. This isn’t the
sort of diplomacy practiced by foreign service professionals;
rather, it is related to the building of mutual respect that
comes from the close engagement of scientists and/or students
from different countries, religions, and cultures in a common
discovery process. The same concept applies at CERN, which

Reminiscences 145
was built on the premise of uniting the continent of Europe

after it was torn apart by two world wars, and SESAME,
which aims to unite the Middle East: SESAME scientists from
different countries that are sometimes in conflict work
together on a common goal and with a common passion—
coming to a better understanding of one another not from the
sharing of knowledge, but from the creation of it together.
Concerning the ICTP Optics Colleges, it is difficult to
imagine a similarly concentrated collection of nationalities,
where just about everyone is from someplace else. The
students learn together, socialize together, and stay in
contact through social media groups for years. And some
fraction of them later will take leadership positions in their
countries. This year, the College is being held entirely online
for the first time, and it has been (it is going on as I write
this) a fantastic learning experience. While personal relation-
ships and understanding naturally face a larger impedance
mismatch, it is abundantly evident that knowledge flows
surprisingly easily over the fiber optic cables that connect us.
To help ignite the interest of younger students in science,
the UNESCO Active Learning in Optics and Photonics
program has reached well over 1000 physics teachers from
over 60 developing countries to provide pedagogical
updating on the teaching of optics and photonics in the
first years of undergraduate and high school levels. The
aim is to provide a better conceptual understanding of how
light works using inquiry-based or active-learning techni-
ques. The program has received generous base funding
from SPIE for many years, and further support from other
optics organizations including Optica and ICO.
Finally, at the early career professional level, the SPIE-ICTP
Anchor Research program in Trieste has helped many highly
selected young researchers from developing countries accel-
erate their career journeys, starting in Trieste. A few have
used the experience to prepare successful grant applications
for setting up low-cost, high-impact laboratories in universi-
ties where none had existed before. They all are self-starters
and incredibly inspirational.

146 Reminiscences
The ICTP Winter College on Optics: Applications of Optics and Photonics in Food Science, 2019.

Reminiscences 147
Guided-Wave Photonics
Bishnu P. Pal
Mahindra University, India
The field of guided-wave photonics (GWP) examines the
phenomena associated with the confinement of light in
composite structures comprising two dielectrics having
distinct refractive indices. GWP has been the driving force
behind landmark developments such as high-speed, long-
range optical fiber communication (OFC) systems and
photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for signal processing at
optical frequencies. Optical fibers and photonic components
have, unquestionably, revolutionized how we communicate
and access information today.
My first encounter with this fascinating area was as a
Royal Norwegian CSIR (NTNF) post-doctoral associate
(1975–77) with the Electro-optics Group (ELAB) headed by
Professor Kjell Bløtekjaer at the Norwegian University of
Science and Technology, Trondheim (then called NTH). It
was a pleasant coincidence that both Kjell and I had
both been involved in research on electron transport in
semiconductors and had decided to move on to this
emerging S&T field around the same time. Since then,
I have been indeed fortunate to have witnessed the
tremendous growth of GWP and to have been a part of
that growth.
There is a lesson here-sometimes, we are too committed to
our field of study during, say, graduate school and become
wary of stepping out of our comfort zones. However, from
personal experience, I can attest to the fact that the rigor of
graduate school goes a long way towards developing the
ability to comprehend new concepts and empowers young
researchers to switch to new fields and make remarkable
strides therein. The bandwidth of knowledge and dissemi-
nation then can grow much broader for an educator, which
eventually yields rich dividends. I never regretted this
switch over! One of my primary tasks while at NTH was to
characterize the index profiles of newly fabricated, high-
silica, low-loss fibers.

148 Reminiscences
I returned to India in the Fall of 1977 to join the Indian

Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi’s Fiber Optics Group,
which was led by a former SPIE Educator Award recipient,
Professor Ajoy Ghatak, who was keen on starting a new
laboratory for fiber optics. This was a great opportunity for
building a new research laboratory from scratch. Our first
efforts were to characterize telecom-grade optical fibers
and, in the fall of 1980, succeeded in launching an IDP
(Interdisciplinary) MTech teaching program in optoelec-
tronics and optical communication jointly with EE faculty,
who also developed the dedicated laboratory for communi-
cation aspects in their department.
The program ran successfully, with equal credits provided
by each participating team, and became an excellent
model for programs run jointly between multiple academic
departments. Within a few years from its inception, it
became one of the most sought-after MTech programs at
IIT Delhi. We were possibly one of the first programs in
the world to start a full-fledged masters’ level inter-
disciplinary program.
From 1982–83, as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at
the Fraunhofer-Institut für Physikalische Messtechnik
(IPM) in Freiburg, Germany, I co-authored with my host,
Prof. Ralph Kersten, a paper that proposed a collection of
cutting-edge (at that time) topics along with experiments in
the area of optical waveguides as a pedagogy. The paper
was published in IEEE Transaction in Education E-28,
46 (1985). At the time, there was a general shortage of
technical prowess among those trained in photonics (in
India), and our collective goal was to empower graduating
students to become successful professionals and to join a
global talent pool, serving in both industry as well as in
academia and national research laboratories.
Today, our alumni hold key positions in multinational
organizations such as Facebook, Google, Infinera, Cisco,
Bell Labs/Lucent Technology, NASA, Sterlite Optical
Technologies India, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre
(BARC), and the Indian Space Research Organization

Reminiscences 149
(ISRO), to name a few. The Fiber Optics Lab at IIT Delhi

also significantly expanded over the years under the
mentorships of other colleagues.
Since then, GWP has made rapid strides during the last
50 years, so much so that data/signal transmission at
200–400 Gbps is now a reality, enabling overall transmis-
sion of Tbps per fiber cable. The emergence of critical
scientific advances and exciting real-world applications
provide boundless opportunities for educators and students
in this field. I wish the community the very best in the
years to come.

150 Reminiscences
Reminiscences
Rajpal Sirohi
Alabama A&M University, USA
It is a privilege to write a short note on my experiences
studying and teaching optics, to be included in this Field
Guide. I had known Prof. Greivenkamp for more than 20
years through his research before I met him. In May of
2017, I received his invitation to author a physics Field
Guide on any one of a variety of topics. I chose the topic of
general optics and prepared material that included
geometrical optics, physical optics, and quantum optics.
Part of a lengthy review of the manuscript is quoted here:
“The book is simply trying to cover too much material. It is
trying to pack Born and Wolf, Goodman, Greivenkamp’s
Field Guide to Geometrical Optics, Saleh and Teich, and
more into a 100-ish page overview of optics. As previously
outlined, the FG Series is not structured for this use.”
During the preparation of the Field Guide, Professor
Greivenkamp and I had email correspondence to clarify
expectations. My regret is that, despite his advice and
guidance, I could not translate the contents into the form
expected of a Field Guide.
I recount here some of my experiences learning and
teaching optics in India. I learned optics in the 1960s by
studying Principles of Optics (Born & Wolf) and Interfer-
ometry (Candler), and I did raytracing through an optical
system using a hand-operated Facit machine, which
required the visualization and creation of a mental picture
of what the equations represented. Setting up a Michelson
or Twyman–Green interferometer to obtain a white-light
fringe pattern required both skill and patience, although
this was easy using Newton’s ring experiment. Principles of
Optics did not have separate geometrical and physical
optics sections, and did not cover quantum optics. Later, I
used books like Fundamentals of Optics (Jenkins & White)
and Geometrical and Physical Optics (Longhurst), which
had separate geometrical and physical optics sections. Now
there are books devoted to geometrical optics and others
devoted to physical optics.

Reminiscences 151
My learning experience was not optimal, which perhaps is

reflected in my instruction style. I always placed emphasis
on understanding the basics, and then on applying the
knowledge thus gained for solving problems. Promoting
entrepreneurship was never even considered.
Demonstration of some of the concepts and results
became possible after the arrival of the He-Ne laser. Due
to this laser, new topics evolved that would become
full-fledged courses for degree programs in Optics. These
new courses were, e.g., Holography and Hologram
Interferometry, Optical Data Processing, Electro-optics,
Speckle Metrology, and Fourier Optics. There was a
renewed interest in optics, which became the science and
technology that was driving innovation, and which con-
tinues to do so, although now it is considerably supported
by software.
Additionally, with the He-Ne laser it became easier to
demonstrate diffraction from various objects, particularly
from a pinhole forming an Airy pattern. It was very easy to
show the bright spot at the back of a round object
when illuminated by a spherical or plane wave, the famous
Arago spot (or Poisson spot or Fresnel spot). Also, to show
that the diffraction patterns of a slit and a wire look similar
is quite illuminating. I wrote a book entitled A Course of
Experiments with the He-Ne Laser, which has a set of
experiments that I conducted. This book became very
popular in India.
Although a p phase change on reflection from a denser
medium is aptly demonstrated in Newton’s ring experi-
ment when the surfaces are clean, I used Fresnel mirror
interference to demonstrate the same. Most inspiring was
to see the self-imaging phenomenon, in which a coarse
grating is imaged by diffraction. I have used the He-Ne
laser extensively in my classes to demonstrate interference
and diffraction phenomena (see the photos on the next
page).

152 Reminiscences
The first photograph shows a diffraction pattern of human

hair; the hair is plucked and held in the beam of a He-Ne
laser. The second photograph shows a moiré pattern of a
circular grating and its self-image in convergent light.
Diffraction pattern of a human hair.
Moiré pattern of a circular grating and its self-image in

convergent light.
Mine has been a very satisfying journey, supported by my

teachers, students, and colleagues. I am grateful to all of
them.

Appendix:
Reviewer Memories

Remembering John Greivenkamp
S. Craig Olson
L3 Harris Technologies Inc., USA
While I knew John Greivenkamp a relatively short time
compared to many of those represented in this volume,
I quickly learned to appreciate his dedication to SPIE and
to education at large. John was heavily responsible for my
own involvement with SPIE, especially in publications and
governance. His own experience spanned industry as well
as academia; thus, he understood all too well the balancing
act at which SPIE excels. To me, his career and teaching
legacy infuse every facet of the optics and photonics
community, which this Field Guide clearly demonstrates.
John was not always in agreement with “accepted” wisdom,
nor with “how things are done.” He was, however,
insightful with his reasoning, and he always approached
the need for change with justifiable data and welcomed
discussion. I witnessed many committee meetings during
which John argued a nuanced topic on bylaws or member-
ship yet maintained friendly professionalism. What came
across during those conversations was the fact that John
cared about issues and not agendas.
I have been on the receiving end of his disagreeing—but
never disagreeable—nature during his decidedly non-
anonymous peer review of the Field Guide to Lens Design,
co-written with Julie Bentley. John, as always, crafted a
teachable moment out of a mundane conflict in aberration
theory notation and nomenclature, which ultimately led to
a better publication. I am known among my own engineer-
ing colleagues for my warning: “When you came into work
today, did you think you would learn anything new?” Such
a mindset perfectly channels John’s energy and dedication
and defines his approach to science, publication, and
education.
We do, as an optical community, most certainly miss John
—his dedication to teaching, his love of optics history, his
long devotion to SPIE, and his willingness to just help.
Most of all, however, we will simply miss a friend.

156 Appendix: Reviewer Memories
Tribute to John Greivenkamp:

A Respect for the Fundamentals
Katie Schwertz
Edmund Optics, USA
John and his Optical Design and Instrumentation classes
at the University of Arizona had a reputation for straight-
forward demos and experiments that connected theory to
reality. Paraxial optics and Gaussian reduction aren’t
exactly flashy, but they set the foundation of understand-
ing for a plethora of more complex concepts in optics and
photonics. I always respected that John reveled in the
fundamentals and simple explanations regarding optical
concepts. John instilled this foundational knowledge in so
many people working today in our field.
The foundation that John set that personally impacted me
the greatest was the Field Guide series. It’s a perfect
example of John’s passion for fundamentals. Who doesn’t
have a copy of the Field Guide to Geometrical Optics on
their desk? How many times have we all had to look up an
equation we learned in our first optics class but just can’t
quite remember that factor of 2? Shortly after I graduated
from the University of Arizona, Jim Burge and I published
the Field Guide to Optomechanical Design and Analysis.
While writing the content, the guidance was always to keep
everything short, simple, and straightforward. The intent
of the first book has permeated through the rest of them,
creating an indispensable set of basic references for the
practicing optical engineer. Publishing a field guide opened
so many doors for me, and I am grateful that John made
that opportunity possible.

The Power of a Brief Exchange
Matthew Jungwirth
CyberOptics Corporation, USA
For a bit of context, I attended the University of Arizona for
my PhD in optical sciences so I had John for a professor.
In fact, my first memory of John was from my very first day
of graduate school. John’s class, Introduction to Geometric
Optics, was famously at 8 in the morning. (Perhaps I
should say infamously since 8 am is a rather early time for
a sleep-deprived grad student.) Anyway, just as class
began, John looked at us all and said, “This is the first class
for most of you, so let me just say, ‘Welcome to grad
school.’” And away we went.
My favorite memory about John, though, was in my second
year at Arizona. I was a teaching assistant on a late
undergrad course on radiometry for (then) Prof. Michael
Descour. I had finished grading the first exam and was
planning to assign grades based on the distribution (as
John does); i.e., make a histogram of all the scores and
hand out the A’s, B’s, and C’s based on the breakpoints in
the distribution. As you might surmise, this activity has a
thick thread of art involved since the chosen bin size has a
meaningful effect on the grade assignments. Thus, I
wanted to check with the boss (Descour) to ensure buy-in
on my method.
While waiting, John happened to walk by on the way to his
office. We briefly exchanged pleasantries and he asked
what I was up to:
Me: “I’m assigning grades to an exam for radiometry. I
wanted to check that Prof. Descour agreed with my
distribution.”
John: “Oh, you are giving grades as I do in Opti 502 (his
course in geometrical optics)?”
Me: “Yes, I am. It seems Descour is busy right now. Would
you be able to take a look, Prof. Greivenkamp?”
John: “Absolutely. And you can call me ‘John.’”

158 Appendix: Reviewer Memories
At this point, I performed the briefest of double takes. Did a

well-respected professor just ask me to call him by his
given name? I was slightly aghast. But, then it dawned on
me: John respected me. It seemed he now saw me not just
as some grad student but as a burgeoning optical scientist.
No, I had not crossed the proverbial Rubicon yet, I still had
the qualifying exam and that fussy dissertation to write
after all, but I felt that I was now knee deep in that storied
river and thus well into my journey to the big leagues in
science.
So, thank you, John, for being one of the first professionals
to show me that I was on the right track.

159
List of Contributors
Larry C. Andrews Peter J. Delfyett

University of Central University of Central
Florida, USA Florida, USA
Jennifer Barton John M. Dudley

The University of Arizona, Université Bourgogne
USA Franche-Comté, France
Julie L. Bentley Jonathan Ellis

University of Rochester, Micro-LAM, Inc., USA
USA
Andrew Forbes
Shanti Bhattacharya University of the
Indian Institute of Witwatersrand, South
Technology Madras, India Africa
Ashley N. Blackwell Maryellen Giger

University of Illinois The University of Chicago,
Chicago, USA USA
Glenn Boreman David Hagan

University of North University of Central
Carolina at Charlotte, Florida, USA
USA
Khan M. Iftekharuddin
Yuchi Chen Old Dominion University,
Nanyang Technological USA
University, Singapore
Matthew Jungwirth
Kathy Creath CyberOptics Corporation,
Optineering, USA USA
Brian Culshaw Keith J. Kasunic

University of Strathclyde, Optical Systems Group
United Kingdom LLC, USA
Atiyya Davis Qian Kemao

University of Illinois Nanyang Technological
Chicago, USA University, Singapore

160
Małgorzata Kujawińska Bishnu P. Pal

Warsaw University of Mahindra University,
Technology, Poland India
Vasudevan Stephen M. Pompea

Lakshminarayanan NSF’s NOIRLab, USA
University of Waterloo,
Canada Anne-Sophie Poulin-
Girard
Chris A. Mack Université Laval,
Fractilia, LLC, USA Canada
Virendra N. Mahajan Jannick P. Rolland

The University of Arizona, University of Rochester,
USA USA
Yobani Mejía Halina Rubinsztein-

Universidad Nacional de Dunlop
Colombia, Colombia The University of
Queensland, Australia
Kyle Myers
Puente Solutions, LLC, USA Bahaa Saleh
University of Central
Joseph Niemela Florida, USA
The Abdus Salam ICTP-
UNESCO, Italy José Sasián
The University of Arizona,
Uzodinma USA
Okoroanyanwu
University of Massachusetts Katie Schwertz
Amherst, USA Edmund Optics, USA
S. Craig Olson Jim Schwiegerling

L3Harris Technologies, Inc, The University of Arizona,
USA USA
Wolfgang Osten Thomas A. Searles

University Stuttgart, University of Illinois
Germany Chicago, USA

161
Samuel Serna Otalvaro Alexis Vogt

Bridgewater State Monroe Community
University, USA College, USA
Joseph A. Shaw Daniel Vukobratovich

Montana State University, Raytheon Missile Systems,
USA USA
Cather Simpson Adam P. Wax

The University of Auckland, Duke University, USA
New Zealand
Megan A. Witherow
Rajpal Sirohi Old Dominion University,
Alabama A&M University, USA
USA
William Wolfe
MJ Soileau The University of Arizona,
University of Central USA
Florida, USA
James C. Wyant
Mitsuo Takeda The University of Arizona,
Utsunomiya University, USA
Japan
Toyohiko Yatagai
Fatima Toor Utsunomiya University,
University of Iowa, USA Japan
Rick Trebino María J. Yzuel

Georgia Institute of Universitat Autònoma de
Technology, USA Barcelona, Spain
Valery V. Tuchin Zeev Zalevsky

Saratov State University, Bar-Ilan University,
Russian Federation Israel
Eric Van Stryland Hans Zappe

University of Central University of Freiburg,
Florida, USA Germany

162
Sponsors

163

164

165

Optics Education:
A Tribute to
John Greivenkamp
The past two decades have seen significant innovation
in teaching methods for science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. This
innovation has been driven by development of new
educational technologies and methods that were
accelerated in 2020 and 2021 by the explosion of
remote teaching due to COVID-19. The teaching of
optics, being a highly specialized STEM field, has much
in common with other areas, but has its own unique
challenges. This volume explores individual experiences
with the development of methods and their application
to the teaching of optics, especially in higher education.
The volume is dedicated to the memory of Professor
John Greivenkamp, who passed away in early 2022
and was among the best known and most passionate
educators of optics in the world.
SPIE Field Guides

The aim of each SPIE Field Guide is to distill a major field of
optical science or technology into a handy desk or briefcase
reference that provides basic, essential information about
optical principles, techniques, or phenomena.
Written for you—the practicing engineer or scientist—
each field guide includes the key definitions, equations,
illustrations, application examples, design considerations,
methods, and tips that you need in the lab and in the field.
J. Scott Tyo
Series Editor
P.O. Box 10
Bellingham, WA 98227-0010
ISBN: 9781510653214
SPIE Vol. No.: FG53
www.spie.org/press/fieldguides

Field Guide To Optics Education A Tribute To John Greivenkamp (Full Book)

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2022 is a landmark year for the SPIE Field Guide series. It

Field Guide to Optics Education

John Greivenkamp, 2020 SPIE President and Founding

Field Guide to Optics Education

Field Guide to Optics Education

Teaching (Optical Design) Students to Learn from 45

Teaching Methodologies and Paradigms 59

Field Guide to Optics Education

Field Guide to Optics Education

Appendix: Reviewer Memories 153

List of Contributors 159

Field Guide to Optics Education

I first met John when he was a 22-year-old first-year

Field Guide to Optics Education

that the results are fantastic. I have learned something

Field Guide to Optics Education

In January 2022 SPIE and the optics profession at large lost

Field Guide to Optics Education

colleagues and collaborators, to reflect on the importance of

Field Guide to Optics Education

generosity. This book will reach many thousands of

J. Scott Tyo, SPIE Field Guide Series Editor

Field Guide to Optics Education

I often remark to my children that I have never actually

Field Guide to Optics Education

Andrey Alenin, the chance to write two Field Guides, and

Field Guide to Optics Education

John Greivenkamp first joined the SPIE Publications

Field Guide to Optics Education

bound and compact, as well as succinct, comprehensive,

Field Guide to Optics Education

John speaking on “SPIE eBooks: affordable and

Eric Pepper, Guest Editor

Field Guide to Optics Education

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A.J. Welch (right) enjoys a break with colleagues and

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The Power of Kindness

Field Guide to Optics Education

1. Be kind; you don’t know what others are going through.

Field Guide to Optics Education

Telling the Story of Optics

Field Guide to Optics Education

Admittedly, this is the hard part of the story, but the

Field Guide to Optics Education

Ashley N. Blackwell, Atiyya Davis, and

Field Guide to Optics Education

their success is attainable. Further, students need an

Field Guide to Optics Education

Dr. L. T. Quigley for her review of this piece. TAS

Field Guide to Optics Education

Teaching. You Mean Learning! How Online

Field Guide to Optics Education

• Fourth, the professor can focus on interacting with the

Field Guide to Optics Education

University Teaching and Research: Transferring

Field Guide to Optics Education

Moreover, the percentage of female students pursuing

Field Guide to Optics Education